Gall Midge

Daylily Gall Midge in Nova Scotia

This is an invasive pest that unfortunately has made it to Nova Scotia and the pest can spread from one garden to another with soil in budded scapes. As you walk around your garden when the scapes are coming up and those first buds are forming take a closer look.

So, what is a daylily gall midge anyway?

In the basic explanation, the midge is a fly that emerges from the soil in the late spring/early summer to find a place where it can lay its eggs. This particular midge finds a nice home inside the daylily bud where the eggs hatch. The maggots then feed on the buds so they can eventually develop into a new midge! When they feed on the bud, they weaken it sometimes causing it to rot. Once the bud falls to the ground, the maggots then over winter in the ground so the process can start all over again next year.

YUCK, so how do I know I have this pest?

Well, this process causes your daylily buds to either be swollen and deformed or look like it is rotting in most cases.

I think I have it, what do I do now?

Understanding which buds are infected is hit or miss. As you make your way around your garden, some will be obvious, and others will be less so. It’s best to pick off all of the buds that you have any suspicion are infected. Yes this will mean less beautiful flowers in your garden, but if you want to try to keep this under control and want to see more flowers next year, you just might have to be a little ruthless. If you take these suspected buds to a location that can be cleaned up (like a patio table) and cut them open, you will quickly know if they are infected or not.

How to I prevent them from coming back?

The most important thing in controlling these pests, is to NOT COMPOST the buds!

You can:

1. Pick them off, put them in a plastic ziplock bag and put them into the freezer for at least a few days

2. BURN THEM

From the information found around the globe, there really is not a particular chemical product that seems to work in all cases to 100%. There were some articles found that happened to mention recommended insecticides. Nova Scotia has banned all these possibilities. So, what does this mean? One option is to use diatomaceous earth as the product claims to be able to pierce the exoskeleton of the fly and therefore reduce the pests. This should be applied early in the season once the scapes emerge in 2021. There are no guarantees with this method, it is something to try. Please remember to wear a mask when applying this in your garden.

Continue to enjoy your daylilies, just go around, and look at them with a plastic bag in your hand so you can pick infected buds off before they fall to the ground. You need to be diligent about this and go out to do this every few days. Yes, it is disheartening to pick off all those buds.

Do your neighbours have daylilies? Or even ditch lilies? If your house has the daylily gall midge, then it is most likely at their house too. So, the best way to control these pests, is to have all of us control the pests. You can go ‘safely and from a distance’ go visit them and look at the daylilies with them. Or you can call them and tell them to visit this website so they can learn and know what needs to be done as well.