Eew - buggies

I'm new to growing iris... planted six last year. They didn't bloom, but the foliage was gorgeous.

This year, only one bloomed... fine, figured they're still getting established. But recently I've noticed the foliage turning brown and wilting miserably. The wild thing was that it was happening left to right... the left ones dying first. As of now, only one is still standing. The foliage looks good, but a few blades are starting to brown.

Today I dug up the dead ones to see what on earth was happening. That's when I saw the devastation. Shredded, nasty, rotted-looking rhizomes. But I nearly jumped out of my skin when the NASTIEST looking bug fell out. Turns out there's an infestation of them! At first I thought grubs, but they were far bigger and nastier looking, plus I couldn't imagine grubs doing this type of specific damage.

I just looked it up online and saw the answer... iris borers! Ugh. Disaster.

Nasty little creeps. So much for my first effort. Sigh.

yup - you're in the zone for them. you have to treat for them.

Now they are in your soil. maybe someone can tell you what to do next? I can't

FYI: if you planted these plants last year, they would not have bloomed until this spring. So don't fret about not getting bloom last year. Guessing you got an bug infested plant, or one with an egg hidden in the foliage. Or one of your neighbors within a mile or so has an infested bed, for you to have such an infestation so fast. But the infestation probably occured last year, and the eggs over wintered.

just now found out I should be treating for them, I thought I was too far south. so far, so good, knock on wood. But i will start treating for them.

I'm so sorry! What rotten luck. But, maybe, better than finding out about them when you'd given in to a new obsession and planted a hundred for the borers to munch.

I rounded up info I'd picked up here and there on DG and other places when I wrote this article on spring clean-up and iris borers. Hope it helps! You can probably do a search in this forum also for more info. (I love our new search engine here.)

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/832/

I sympathize. There is one thing that works - Bayer's "Merit" grub control, applied in early spring. My borers are gone, but now I have....slugs. Never knew they could do so much damage.