HELP!!!!!!!!!!

I went out to survey damage from the storm we had last night - one dead pine tree blown over...oh no! my lush and beautiful patch of red orange lillies blown over! On closer inspection I see that there is insect damage that has weakened the stems...most of the way down. Are there lily borers as well as iris borers? I doubt the lilies can survive this kind of attact - there is no foliage...

Pictures please of your stems. It seems there is lots of this going around this year. Brown anadthin ust above the soil. Is that what you have?
inanda

Sorry I don't have pic posting ability. What is brown anadthin ust?

That's code for brown and thin just above the soil. We all type in code around here.LOL

After a while, you become adept at computerese. Sometimes it's lingo and in my case it's a grungy-gummy keyboard that misses spaces and accidental misstrokes.

/./////////. (sometimes it's a kitty on the keyboard) :)

Thanks schoolie. Maybe it is time I started reading posts before sending them.

inanda - laughing

I this case. the foliage and bloom still looks wonderfully healthy, except that it has a weak spot about 4 inches from the ground, and bits of some kind of insect granules all up and down the stems. The heavy winds we got last night just pushed them over. I brought the worst ones indoor for a bouquet, but maybe I should have tried to repair the stems or something. I have never seen this before.

I don't think it is insect eggs I am seeing - probably the remains of the inner stem that the beasties are chewing. There are little holes in various places on the stem, and Christopher Lloyd mentions the lily beetle in one of his books. Think I will try to look it up...

I sure hope not! Lily beetles are only on the east coast, so far..... eek!

No it's not that. I read about them, and they eat the leaves. Not my problem...Oh well, time for a garden vacation I think. Let the beasties do what they will. I will lie in the shade and drink ice cold lemonade and read a book...

I also have something boring into and hollowing out a few of my lily stems. One bloomed fine, but the other ones buds barely opened and looked terrible. There are the little granules of bored out lily stem all down the plant. Did anyone ever figure out what this might be? I broke the stem on one and the bored out area goes as far up and down the stem as I can see. I wonder if these will bore down into the bulb?
Vicki

Sounds like my problem exactly. I saw the same kind of damage on a stem of lamb's quarter also.

Well bummer, I found another lily when I got home. I do have pics of the damage and of the ummm....damaged culprit. It is a larva of some kind and it had eaten from near the top of the stem down to within approx 5" of the soil line.

I'll post pics of the stem/holes and if anyone wants to see the mostly cut in half larva, let me know and I'll post it too, for identification, just didn't want to gross anyone out. I was cutting the stem down a little at a time and got him with the pruners, ewwww.

Here's the hole in one lily.

Here's a stem that broke due to weakness. This is the one that I cut on down this evening, to find the larva.

Lets see the little culprit.

Here it is.....hope it's intact enough to be identifiable, I'd really like to know what it is.

Arrrggghh! Why all the pestilence this year?? I thought the wind broke off my great, tall Jubileos and now I'm seeing these little white tapiocas in the hollow stem that remains. I had explained it away six ways from Sunday, but this is inescapable evidence from sadie_mae. I will post a photo, but it looks like Iowa and Minnesota may have the same problem as Kentucky. Is this for sure a chewer doing this? or is it part of a fungus?

First powdery mildew, then botrytis, now this. None of these things happened to me in 20 years in that garden. What a weird year!

Lily

Here's my dilemma...

and this view - it's on the stem, too!

Little white tapiocas - that's how I would describe it. But my stem has holes in it, so It must be some kind of stem borer? Mine is definately not a fungus. Can you believe I do not want to look closer at it as I am already battling iris borer this year! Maybe it's not something new but we have just never paid attention to it before. Maybe in the past I thought my lilies were falling over because I didn't stake them!

Yuck, reminds me I have a few iris borers to go kill myself.

yes there are lil6y borer....and the granules on the outside of the stem is a dead giveaway....

I know the feeling. Calgon take me away. What is scary is I had noticed some little red beetles running around on the board walks this year that were unfamiliar to me, but they say that the lily beetle defoliates, so that doesn't explain what is going on out here. (I will try to get a picture of one, though, to find out what THEY are and hopefully head them off at the pass.) I'm really tired of webs and blight and growths and holes all over the place. My roses look the worst they have in years, including the rugosas that normally go untouched. Even hostas and wild grape vines have been chewed! So far, my daylilies are the only plants that look fairly normal. Be grateful for that, right? Oh, and my peonies were fine - how quickly we forget. Okay, enough whining for one day.
If anyone can confirm that the culprit Vicki photographed is causing what shows up in these photos and has a clue how to get rid of them, would sure like to hear from you. I'm not seeing them - maybe they have already done their thing and moved on. Bluepoppy? What is the name of the lily borer - only ones I could find were in Australia or have they come here now too? The Australian variety looks suspiciously like the photo of the reconstructed larvae in Vicki's photo.

Lily

I looked a long time last night and could only find references to the Australian and African lily borers. I only found photos of the African and it looked different. I did find information that said the common stem borer could attack lilies but the pics did not look like the one that came out of mine.

Inanda is going to send my photos to some lily people and see if they can i.d. the culprit, or provide any information, she'll let us know what she finds out. I'm just hoping that what ever it is doesn't get into the bulb.

All of my plants are looking worse this year than in the past, even the daylilies :-( I've got a terrible case of thrips on them and the Japanese beetles seem to be here earlier than usual, eating any rose that dares to show a bloom and I don't even want to talk about the black spot! I'm just crossing my fingers that the iris borers stay away....

Vicki

Thanks, Inanda, for following up on the photos. It really got my attention when I started looking closely at what is going on out there. I, too, hope this is not going to end up in the bulb. If anything can be done now, before the rest of the plant is affected, that would be good news.

Keeping fingers crossed with you, Vicki. Thanks for getting a picture of the critter.

Lily

I had considered going out and cutting all of mine, that have the holes in them, down to the ground or at least far enough to get past the larvae but I know that while they're still green, they're still feeding the bulb....what a decision, starve the bulb or let the critter eat away.

I suppose we are talking poison here? What is the treatment for stalk borers? I really hate the thought of using chemicals on my garden, but this year I have decided to use merit in the spring on my irises, as they are extremely infested with iris borer this year. I am in the process of digging, inspecting, surgical extraction, bleaching, replanting...

I don't know, I don't use pesticides either. I did buy some stuff this spring with the same active ingredient as Merit, for my irises, but then forgot to use it. I wonder if BT (bacillus thuringiensis) would work, but then you've got to get it into the area that the caterpillar or larvae is feeding. It also tends to work better when they are young. Probably if a pesticide is used, it will have to be a systemic like Merit.

don't know what there name is but know I have had them......DOn't see any this year...Last year when I seen the hole and granules I went after them... took the stem off and cut till I found them..Maybe I got rid of all of mine.....I did spray over them this spring when I sprayed with Cygon for the Iris borer......Maybe that helped also.....

I've just found some good resources. Haven't done too much searching yet, but I will as time permits:

http://webgarden.osu.edu This is a search engine devoted to PLANTS!

Stalk Borer Publication - This suggests that common stalk borers will migrate from tall rank grasses and weeds (guilty as charged!) to ornamentals if the grasses are not mowed in a timely fashion!

http://www.uvm.edu/extension/publications/el/el187.htm

I sent a question to Ask Lil E Um (the NSLS up here) to see if they know off the top of their head what this is about. Could be a cyclical kind of problem that we just have never experienced. Not hopeful that the answer will come quickly as beaker's experience was that the turnaround time was fairly slow. Somehow, I can't believe that boring critter isn't aiming for the bulb. That is my biggest concern. Wonder if there is anything one could "pour" into the stem, even water, to flush them out of there. Does that sound like grasping at straws, just a bit?? Cutting back probably makes more sense, since the bulb is probably not getting much nutrition through the stem in that condition.

Didn't read your post before mine, sorry. Hmmm. Elderberry, strawberry and plum nearby. No tall grasses, but lots of other hosts! I'll be checking them out. Thanks for the research!
Lily

Yep, I've got the "rank" grass too. My gardening area is surrounded by our waist high fields!

I think you have found it! The lot behind us was just excavated a month ago to build a house. It had been just a tall weed patch before that. Bet those nasties just crawled right over here to taste the good stuff. I have tall grass from time to time and weeds are plentiful, but that is not new and usually not grasses. The vacant lot explains the migration to my yard. Will be looking for better photos, but they have many descriptions depending on their age. Could well be the one Vicki photographed, right?
http://www.pioneer.com/usa/images/agronomy/insects/stalk_borer_larva.jpg
Needle holes up and down the stem, now that's a novel approach. That is one way they say you can destroy the little bugger without destroying the plant. No sign that it goes for the bulb, specifically. Whew!

Hunting now.

Lily

I read about one way to get rid of them - this sounds like fun! use a razor blade to slit the stem and then just scoop them out! Then you have to bandage up your stem, stake it, and pray a lot! I don't know if that kind of surgery would be do-able on a large-scale!

Besides the tall rank weeds, which would be possible to keep mowed if I got at it earlier in the year and were more motivated, I also have started to grow ornamental grasses in my flower beds. Those are not going to be mowed down until early spring!

Got an answer from NSLS. They think from the pictures that it is corn borer. Here is what she says, in part:

"We have had it in a few stems in the past and unfortunately you have to just dig the whole thing, stem and bulb, and put it in the garbage...do not compost it!! To my knowledge there is not really anything else you can do to prevent this, it just picked a few of your lilies to feed on and lay their eggs.

Corn borer is everywhere just like the iris borer and for what ever reason it also on occasion likes the stems of lilies. We have not had a reoccurrence in our garden for a couple years so I wouldn't be worried that you are being inundated with this problem."

I'm not posting the name of the society member here, but, if it is put out on their website, then I'll be happy to link to it.

Looks like my Jubileos are going to the landfill. Hope there are not too many others! I would guess we'd get the same advice if it was any kind of borer? Any thoughts?

Lily

If it hasn't gotten to the bulb, I wonder why you'd have to trash the bulb too? I'd think the egg laying phase is done, unless the larvae has had time to pupate and hatch and start the cycle over. I know with irises, if it hasn't already killed the rhizome, you can just dig the borer out, bleach the rhizome to help protect it from rot and replant. I may dig mine and if it hasn't gotten to the bulb, just put them in a mild bleach solution, like I'd use for daylilies or irises and replant. I only have 1 of the one lily that it attacked, I think I'll cut it down tonight to see how far it has gotten and make the decision from there....
Thanks for doing some more research...now I'm off to look for a photo of a corn borer!
Vicki

I didn't trash my bulbs...just cut the stem till I found the borer and killed it...and the lilies came back the following year.....

I think you should at least inspect the bulb and see if there is larvae there. When I dug up my Aphodites, I could see they were infested.

If its a corn borer, maybe you could plant some corn in the same patch and it would leave the lilies alone...