Does anybody have any hands-on experience with DGM?

I read in the AHS info that this midge has only 1 life cycle per year.
Does that mean that if you would prevent all your DL's from blooming (by cutting all scapes for instance) for a whole year the DGM is gone from your garden?


Mayo

In theory yes, but although I've suggested it to a few people I don't know anyone who has been willing to sacrifice a year's blooms. There's also the problem of where it came from. If it is infesting a neighbour's garden and came to yours from there then it will eventually come back whatever you do.

I have small garden and not that many DL's yet...

I'm sure I got this 'present' from a person who's seedlings I bought this year
He lives at the other side of the country and gave me the plants with clump..
I didn't know any better and placed them in my garden without removing and disposing of the soil


Mayo

Does anyone nearby you grow daylilies? I'm not saying the midges necessarily came from a neighbour but if yours have spread to there then it may not be possible to get rid of them - you'd need to get the neighbour to remove all scapes too.

No, I'm the only one in my block.
Further along the road they have a Stella, but that's about 1 kilometer away, and my garden is at the back of the house and their Stella at the front...

How far can a DL Gall Midge travel on it's own?


Mayo

Today I checked the H. Fulva one of my neighbours grow. It looks perfect. The other neighbour growing it has it in the back of the garden, so I don't think it can travel here.

We don't know how far it can travel on its own but it is not a strong flier. Presumably the wind could help it though. If it's not in the neighbourhood then your scheme of getting rid of it by sacrificing all scapes may work. But can you also resist buying daylilies with buds or in pots in the future?

I know that this is an old thread but my experience may be of use/interest to posters with this problem.

I am in the UK and this is my second year dealing with this. Last year was awful with very many plants affected but as I was not experienced or knowledgeable about the pest I was maybe not as ruthless as necessary and any buds I wasn't sure about I left on as I was so worried about having no blooms left.

This year about 5 plants have been affected, so much better than last year,and I have been much more ruthless in removing and destroying any suspect buds.

I have been advised that the midge can travel up to 5km (yes, 5) in search of the host plant. HOWEVER, so far only plants in my back garden have been affected, the two in the front haven't been attacked (but I don't know if they would have been if the daylilies in the back hadn't been there!).

The RHS in Britain did trails with pesticides and found that they can considerably help with but not eradicate the problem, esp. one made by Bayers which reduced the incidence from 14% affected plants to 1% during the trial period. It is called Bayers Provado Ultimate Bug Killer.

I have read that you can destroy the buds and larvae inside by dropping the buds into bleach before sealing in plastic if you are not able to burn them but haven't tried this--not sure if the bleach needs to be dilute or concentrated!

Here in the UK it appears that different plants have been targeted than last year with mainly purple varieties being mainly affected this spring, not yellow as I usually read is the case (not ony in my garden but also confirmed by another daylily specialist).

Next year I am going to try and protect favourite varieties by putting organza or mosquito net bags over the emerging scapes and making necklaces of yellow sticky insect trap tape as an experiment.

Unfortunately I don't know how to do links but the RHS HEMEROCALLIS GALL MIDGE study can be found online and the results available as a download file for anyone interested.

Hope that helps someone!

I think this is the article you were wanting to post. It was a combined effort of the American Hemerocallis Society, which provided funding, and the RHS.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/science...

The midge is not a strong flier but can probably be helped along by the wind. They had initial problems with this research at Wisley because the midges didn't find the daylilies and they had to introduce it to the test area.

Thanks Sooby,

I'm not very technologically skilled--I'm not skilled in much at all really!

I believe the first incidence was in Surrey but I am in Yorkshire, about 250 miles further north.

You're welcome. What you need to do is copy the address for a web page and then paste it into your post. Or just ask here and one of us will do it for you It's a long time since I've been to Yorkshire but we used to visit family there once in a while when I still lived in the UK. It would be nice to see the moors again!

Thanks Sue,

The moors are beautiful as always, I love the moors, OH prefers the Dales!

We're having a mini-heatwave here atm ( well for Yorkshire anything above 20 degrees C. is a heatwave!). Was looking at the seedling post earlier where someone advised it took 2-3 years for a daylily from seed and I was so envious.

I potted some seeds from Lily Auction as an experiment about 7 years ago and it looks like I might finally get a flower on a couple this year--can't even remember what crosses they are anymore! At least I know that they are hardy just by surviving!

I console myself with the thought that the Victorians planted trees for FUTURE generations

Thanks Scatterbrain for your post. I had some plants affected the past year no matter their color. Luckily I learned fast thanks to the valuable people on here, I started removing the suspicious buds and open them to check if there were any larvae inside, and yes, they were there. I put the buds in plastic bags and sealed them tight and let them cooking under the sun (I can't burn anything and never heard about bleach).
This year I had no problem at all. Some buds at the start of the season looked a bit strange so I picked up one here and one there to open them, but they were fine.
Still a mistery on how gall midge has come here. It appeared on the third year of my daylilies and none this year, the fourth.

I get Gall Midge here every year. So many aborted/ruined blooms in early spring usually, but this year it has been a very cool and wet spring, so I still have gall midge. I take off all the ruined blooms, put them in a sack and burn them. But, it doesn't seem to help.
As the weather warms up, I don't have the gall midge issue anymore, until the next spring. So, the warmer weather seems to put a stop to it.

There is only one generation a year of the gall midge, so as the year progresses you should find the later flowering daylilies are less and less affected as the midge life cycle winds down and they start to pupate for the next year's hatch. That's why people in areas where the gall midge occurs are often advised to concetrate on the later flowering daylily cultivars which avoid the midge, rather than the early ones that coincide with the midge's activities.

I grow Daylilies in Liverpool, England, and I became aware of the midges just last year, although they have certainly been present longer without me taking much notice of the damage, so I have been removing affected buds and killing the larvae by pouring boiling water over them. I still get a good display from the affected plants, but I will avoid early varieties in future.

Two plants in particular have been unaffected so far. One is the species lilioasphodelus, which is very early. and the other is High Tor, which is 5.5 feet = 165cm. I have a theory that the midges avoid very tall plants, in the same way that carrot flies never fly above 2 feet, but it is only a theory.