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      You are here: Home / Agriculture / Leek Moth Invasion

      Leek Moth Invasion

      June 19, 2012 By Geo Davis 1 Comment

      Leek Moths Invade Essex County
      Leek Moths Invade Essex County

      Shortly after adding two flats of baby leeks to our vegetable garden, the phone rang and my mother burst my vichyssoise bubble.

      “Did you read about the leek moths?” my mother asked dramatically.

      “The what?”

      “Leek moths,” she repeated as if I should know what she was talking about.

      “No. Just finished planting my leeks though…”

      She summarized the article she’d just read in the The Valley News about an invasive moth species recently spotted in Essex County.

      Anita Deming of Cornell Cooperative Extension in Westport reported to members of the Economic Development, Planning and Publicity Committee June 11 that they had found the first reported case of leek moths in Essex County… Leek moths are an invasive species which live off of plants like onions, garlic, leeks and chives. (The Valley News)

      Jolly news to reward back-aching gardeners and local farmers. Just finished penciling in your last leeks? Just finished thinning and transplanting your chives? Bad luck!

      Although I didn’t grow garlic or onions this year, we planted plenty of leeks and we have an approximately 3’x6′ area of our herb garden dedicated to perennial chives. I’m crossing my fingers that we’ll get lucky or discover a non-toxic means of combating the leek moths.

      But Deming isn’t offering much room for optimism.

      “The larvae feed off of those plants,” Deming said. “They are all plants that our local farmers like to grow and sell… You have to spray, and a lot of our farmers pride themselves as purely organic farms,” she said. (The Valley News)

      Pesticide? Uh-oh. There’s got to be an alternative.

      Deming added that… another way to stop the spread of leek moths is by not sharing bulbs.

      “They will live in the bulbs and plants over the winter, so sharing them will lead to spreading,” Deming said. (The Valley News)

      I can certainly avoid passing our bulbs along, but the leeks were planted from seedlings. Am I in danger? Please pass along any suggestions!

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      Filed Under: Agriculture Tagged With: Anita Deming, Cornell Cooperative Extension, invasive species, Leek, leek moth, Moth

      About Geo Davis

      Geo Davis (aka virtualDavis) is a writer, storyteller and unabashed flâneur. He taught and coached at Santa Fe Preparatory School and The American School of Paris, co-founded Maison Margaux: "Paris à la parisienne" in Faubourg Saint-Germain, and owns Adobe Oasis in Santa Fe, NM with his bride.

      Geo chronicles adventures (and misadventures) of rehabilitating an historic Essex home at Rosslyn Redux: Reawakening a home, a dream and ourselves; blogs about doodling and other esoterica at virtualDavis.com; posts sometimes unnerving, occasionally euphoric, and always pollyanna "midlife mashups" at 40x41.com; waxes nautical at Sailing Errant; and delves into matters of parenting, babylandia, and childfreedom at Why No Kids? He meanders on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, YouTube and Flickr.

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      Comments

      1. Sher says

        July 9, 2014 at 1:38 pm

        I am in Eden VT and just got them this year. I grow 70+ varieties of organic garlic and there appears there is no way to maintain organic once you get these. After reading all the studies biological controls just do not do the trick. I have also planted from seed (garlic bulbils and shallot, onion and leeks from seed. None of these varieties show any damage yet although it is early.

        Reply

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