Saturday, March 17, 2012

Iris Borer's demise?

Could this be a once in a lifetime iris lovers dream? The iris borer eggs, that wintered over on that foliage you never cleaned up, likely hatched today. Their cycle is to hatch on the second day that temps reach at least 70 degrees in a row, which happened today - day 2. Normally, by the time we have these consecutive temps, iris plants have a fair amount of leaf growth. Their MO: the tiny borer hatches, crawls up the leaf, burrows in, eats it's way down the leaf and feeds on the rhizome, ruining - but usually not killing the plant. After they are fat from feeding, like seen above, they crawl into the soil to pupate. Then late in the summer, the adult - a moth emerges and lays eggs on the plant foliage. Then, the eggs lie in wait until the temps tell them to hatch, the cycle complete. SO. This is my question! Did they emerge today, and is so, without any foliage to burrow in, what becomes of them? I am so hoping they just die. Imagine iris lovers....if it could be true, that perhaps we may have an entire season w/o iris borer. Later...gotta go do a cartwheel in celebration......

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