Yes, I thought they were snail tracks as well since I had read that leafminers don't affect daylilies, but of course that has been proven different. The larvae are hard to spot because they tend to stay at the base of the foilage right near the crown. I assume they have an active eating period, but I have never seen them in the foilage other than at the base. If you see foilage that has the trails you can tear it off all the way down to the crown and if the larvae is still in there you can squash it. But that would take a lot of time if there were on a lot of daylilies.
This is only my second time using Avid so I'm estimating on how long this will last. I know Fred has had his for awhile. I use a 15 gallon sprayer which can spray out at a steady stream or a light mist; this will determine how long a quart will last you. It also depends on if you really drench the daylilies or just mist them enough for coverage. I just sprayed not too long ago since we have had a mild winter and the aphids were getting really bad. I used about 1 1/2 tanks and it takes 2 oz of Avid per 15 gal. (this is what I was told to use). If you go by the label it says to use 8oz per 100 gal (aphids, thrips, leafminer) so that comes out to about 1/4oz per 3 gal. Bill waldrop use 2 1/2 tsp per 4 gal. Everyone is different so again it depends on how much you use on how long it lasts. I sprayed twice so I used 6 oz of Avid. Fred sprays in early spring 3 times at 1 week intervals (I believe that's the intervals) to make sure and get any spider mites and the eggs that may hatch after spraying; I don't think he sprays in the winter. The only reason we did was because it's been pretty mild except for a few days of freezing here and there. So realistically a quart could last us 3-6 years depending on if we have to spray once or twice a year. If you go by the label usuage it could last you a lot longer than that. Of course it depends on how many daylilies you have to spray (and I know you have quite a bit)
Keep in mind that Avid / generic is not a systemic it's a......
From the internet and label.....
Avid is a contact and translaminar miticide. Translaminar is a term that refers to insecticides/miticides that penetrate the leaf tissue and form a reservoir of active ingredient within the leaf. Avid generally provides up to 28 days of residual activity.
Mix with sufficient water and apply as a foliar spray to obtain uniform coverage. For mites, apply when mites first appear and repeat as necessary to maintain control. For leafminers, apply as needed and repeat at 7-day intervals or as necessary to maintain control. For suppression of aphids, thrips and whiteflies apply when young, immature stages of these pests are first observed and repeat every 7 days for 2 or 3 weeks.
I'm showing you some photos so you can get an idea of how many daylilies there are here. The first one is the potted daylilies and this isn't all of them. I took this before we were done potting them. There are 2000-2500 potted.
The second photo shows 3 of my 7 30 foot beds ( if they were completely full then it would be 6 full beds). on 5 of the beds James has his and they are about 60-70 feet long and full of daylilies as well. Then there are the seedling beds with clumps of seedlings and then the baby seedling beds also. In the spring we will have a bunch more collections planted so I would say it would take 2- 15 gal sprayers full sprayed in spring.
I hope I didn't make it too confusing for you for you. I'm sure Fred will chime in with how long his lasts.
Now, if you are not concerned with spider mites (which is one reason we use Avid) then you can get Imidacloprid 2F( there are different brands available) which if I'm reading correctly it takes 1.5 oz per 100 gal water and it's good for aphids, leafminers, leafhoppers, and a lot more insects. It's a systemic. I have used the Bayer Advanced complete insect killer from Lowes that is the same ingredient but in a lot lower dose (which you have to mix in a whole lot more) and it works great. The Bayer Advanced Complete insect killer I think 30 days or longer (really can't remember) and I only had to spray once for the season. I would have had to use twice with the mild winter.
You can get it from here for $39.95 qt
http://www.treestuff.com/store...
or this place has a few brands of the generic
http://www.domyownlawn.com/ins...
Hope some of this helps
