They're out! Narcissus flies active

[mark smyth]

no Lesley, just a new colour
1. all black
2. all brown
3. three colours
4. black with red 'tail'

[annew]

I think this is a narcissus fly - right? Didn't manage to catch it though...

[mark smyth]

  you let it escape!

[annew]

 

[mark smyth]

They love Geranium flowers. While they are feeding you should be able to squash them or swat them

[annew]

The trouble is my eyesight is not good enough to identify them unless I'm close. Then they're off and I'm too late. Today I was watching a tree bee (I thought) on my lavender. Then I got suspicious because I couldn't see any pollen baskets on its legs, s I went and got a jar and managed to catch it. That should have told me it wasn't a narcissus fly... After a short while in the fridge it had calmed down enough for me to photograph it and have a closer look via the image. You can see how this might be a rather long winded way of identifying a suspect.
Anyway, it had a reprieve because it had hairy legs.
I bet you're going to tell me it was a rare hairy legged narcissus fly.

[mark smyth]

an innocent bee.

[annew]

Phew!

[Hagen Engelmann]

Now they're in! Narcissus flies grub active

[Lesley Cox]

Isn't that just utterly disgusting?

[Brian Ellis]

Isn't that just utterly disgusting?

...and, I fear, expensive.  Not to mention b1%%dy annoying

[Hagen Engelmann]

Brian, it was DONCASTER`S DOUBLE CHARMER. But now I have twinscaled the bulb. So I`m on the way to 8 bulbils, I hope.

[Hagen Engelmann]

Here is the actually result. I never thought, that the grubs have done their work already in October.

[Armin]

Hagen,
what an error! I could cry when I look at your images. Reminds me my own lifting results of narcissus bulbs...

B.t.w. today I caught another culprit on my died off lilies - a scarlet lily beetle Lilioceris lilii

[johnw]

Here is the actually result. I never thought, that the grubs have done their work already in October.

Hagen - Do you think if you had treated the bulbs in May with Provado that the concetrantion in the bulbs might still be strong enough to kill the larvae when they took their first bit?

Last month we took a broad shovel to a friend's snowdrop patch. This drift has never been treated.  We lifted one shovel-full and counted over 400 snowdrops.  About 10-12 had NBF holes in their basal plates.  The 2-3 I examined had no sign of a larva but Ken found larvae in the rest.  One can live with the low percentage of damage but somehow these NBFs (you may not necessarily read NBF as narcissus bulb fly by the way ) read labels and price tags.

johnw