While we don't have them out here in the desert, I know of other people back
east that fight them EVERY YEAR. You can get some ajax cleaner with bleach in it
and cover the rhizme with it, this will protect the rhizome and help kill
anything left behind. In the fall you need to clean up any dead fans and stuff
from around the iris, this is where the moth lays it's eggs for the winter.
There is a bug killer you can use too, but it's a strong and costly one.


--
In This Universe The Night was Falling,The Shadows were lengthening
towards an east that would not know another dawn.
But elsewhere the Stars were still young and the light of morning lingered: and
along the path he once had followed, Man would one day go again.

Arthur C. Clarke "The City & The Stars"

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"Nancy Coffey" wrote in message
news:GWnsxpxsZsJ0-pn2-dyi12JcPIz8u@localhost...
Hello folks,

I am in the process of digging up all my iris--this could take
weeks--to wipe out iris borer. I have found borer in almost every
clump. So far they seem to be confined to the leaf and rhizome and
I've found every size from very tiny to big fat ones, but they don't
seem to have progressed to the brown pupa stage in the soil.

Instead of replanting them, I am putting them in pots without soil for
a couple of weeks, to give any that I missed a chance to grow. Then
I'll examine them closely again before re-planting. It shouldn't hurt
them to be out of the ground in a shady place for that long, should
it? I'll give them a light spray with water once in a while if it
doesn't rain.

Do you think that this will break the cycle and render my garden
borer-free? I am in southern Ontario.

Thanks,
Nancy
Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada