BY TERRY LAURIN, ONTARIO, CANADA Winning the Borer War
Borer Damage on TB Foliage
, jan sacks
I live in Aurora, Ontario, Canada, which is
approximately 25 miles north of Toronto. This is prime
iris borer “country.” I have been growing irises for 30
years. Currently there are about 600 different iris
cultivars on my residential lot. As anyone who grows
irises in this area can attest to, dealing with the iris borer
can be a real challenge. One can never completely
eradicate this pest, however there are ways to help
control the numbers. Some of these methods include
the use of chemicals or nematodes or burning the
iris foliage in the spring. In Ontario, a province-wide
pesticide ban came into effect in 2009. Controlling the
iris borer in my garden became a labor-intensive task as
I spent my days squishing larvae in the leaves, cutting
iris fans down to the rhizome and digging up infected
clumps. This newly acquired “hobby” was an exercise in
futility that started in early May and continued until mid-
October. As this was not my idea of fun, I spent many
Borer in Iris Rhizome
, neil houghton
sleepless nights trying to figure out a way to control
the iris borer so I could spend more time relaxing in my
garden.
Then one night I had a thought. Since the iris borer
moth flies at night and bug zappers are used to kill flying
nocturnal insects such as mosquitoes, would a bug
zapper be effective against the iris borer moth?
In IRISES, Volume 95, No. 2, Series No. 372, Spring
2014 ,there was an article by Pat McNeal entitled “No
More Iris Borers.” In it, she describes how the use of
a bug zapper has helped her control the iris borer in a
safe, time-saving and cost-effective way. After reading
this article I was convinced this was the way to go and
set about investigating appropriate bug zappers.
That was an education in itself. There is a whole world
of bug zappers available to the homeowner. Features
that I considered necessary were the ability to capture
the moth whole—so I could monitor my capture rate—
48 AIS Bulletin Summer 2018