Bulb pests
Rodger Whitlock (Wed, 23 Jun 2004 11:46:24 PDT)

On 19 Jun 04 at 8:06, Mark Smyth wrote:

Unlike the vine weevil, the narcissus fly is quite sensitive to the
usual range of insecticides -- it's just a fly. A drench of almost
any residual insecticide, such as methoxychlor, will do -- if, that
is, you can still obtain the stuff. The difficulty is that even
methoxychlor requires re-application every two or three weeks for
two or three months while the fly is on the wing, and I for one am
not thrilled with the idea of using so much of any pesticide.

We have a great many feral narcissus here and they host narcissus
flies in huge numbers. Many cultivars disappear in one year. I've
taken to growing my favorites in large pots and putting these in the
shade one the flowers are over. The narcissus fly does not seem to
attack bulbs in the shade.

I am surprised that pheromone traps have not been developed for the
narcissus fly.

--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate

on beautiful Vancouver Island