Re: nematodes and borers
- Subject: Re: [sibrob] nematodes and borers
- From: J* S*
- Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2001 09:28:37 -0600
Hi Jan,
What do you use for borers then??
Jim in Saskatoon.
Jpwflowers@aol.com wrote:
>
> We have used beneficial nematodes twice for iris borer with little success.
> Technically it should work if you spray at the right time, but that is a
> Catch 22 here in the Northeast.
>
> Beneficial nematodes can only survive in soil temperatures above 45 degrees.
> They are not really active until the soil temperature gets above 60-70
> degrees. So if you spread them in the spring when the borer eggs are
> hatching they are not likely to be active enough to parasitize them (if they
> survive at all). If you spread them later in the spring when the soil has
> warmed up, the borer's are already up inside the leaves and not likely to be
> attacked by the nematodes. And to make it more complicated, you can only
> spread them when the soil is really moist and this spring, even though we had
> some very warm days, we also had a drought and had to wait for it to end
> before spreading the nematodes.
>
> On the more positive side, we have had very good luck with using nematodes
> against cutworms, which are a very serious problem here for irises and
> everything else. Since the cutworms are in the soil rather than inside the
> leaves the nematodes can get to them easily.
>
> I do not think that spreading nematodes now would do any good against borer.
> Spraying with nasty chemicals wouldn't work now either.
>
> Jan Sacks in Carlisle MA Zone 5 where the weather has been magnificent for a
> week. 70's in July! Wonderful.
>
>
>
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