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Sun, Aug 21, 11 at 13:50
| Today I toured a picture perfect garden situated on a 1 acre lot. The homeowners were of course quite proud to show me all their plants. They had several large plantings of coneflowers. However they were quite concerned about these particular plants as they showed me the damage from a worm/ larva, that burrows into the cones of echinacea. Take a look at your echinacea; specifically at the cones that have turned very black. Now pull it apart and you will soon see a small blue white worm below the surface. I was told that this 'bug' is known as a sunflower moth larvae. I went home and was shocked to see similarly with my few plantings of echineaca. It was easily seen in my PowWows. Check your coneflowers and see if you don't see similarly.
Has this topic been discussed previously? Is there a solution besides 'deadheading' and burning permanently disposing of the affect flowers? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by nevermore44 (My Page) on Mon, Aug 22, 11 at 9:22
| The sunflower moth (Homoeosoma electellum)??? |
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| Yes nevermore44 as I did mention in my initial post. Do you know of ways to eradicate this pest w/o harming the beneficial insects that are attracted to coneflowers? |
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- Posted by christie_sw_mo Z6 (My Page) on Tue, Aug 23, 11 at 10:03
| Does it destroy the flowers before they open up? I have seen some type of larva in my coneflowers that burrow and I think destroy the seeds but they don't seem to ruin the flowers so I have left them alone. I suspect the finches eat the worms along with the seeds. I do still get a few seeds and volunteers. You may have a different pest than I do though. I am having a similar dilemma with my salvia plants. There is a moth larva that destroys the buds before the flowers open up so I get very few blooms. I planted the salvia for hummingbirds and butterflies so I don't want to spray pesticide on them and I'm at a loss on what to do. So far I've left those alone too. It's ruining my 'Black and Blue' and others. |
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