Garden pest, Hemerocallis gall midge
Day lilies – Hemerocallis species and cultivars have a parasitic pest called the Gall midge Contarinia quinquenotata
It’s been gradually spreading through the UK since 1989.
There is no control for the pest other than picking off the infected flower buds and destroying them.
Don’t put them in the compost bin as they will pupate and emerge next year.
I put the infected buds on a table in the sun thinking that this would kill the larvae but instead the maggots wriggled out and went into early pupation.
Burning the buds is the sure way of destroying these maggots.
The adult fly is tiny and lays hundreds of eggs in the developing flower buds. The white maggots grow to about 2-3mm. When ready to pupate the larvae crawl out of the flower bud and fall to the ground where they bury themselves in the soil, pupate, then emerge as adults flies the following year.
Photography By Neil Bromhall Complete Gardens Advice CD-ROM Ltd
July 16, 2008 at 11:50 pm |
Some of my day lily buds are not opening, they seem to look damp and partly translucent. I have had gall midge and have been frantrically picking off the buds. This seems to be something differant. Any ideas on what it maybe?. I hope it’s not a virus. Thank you