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Gardening

Problem with Dahlias

(2 Posts)
petra Mon 03-Aug-15 16:59:44

The problem is: the buds are going rotten before they bloom.
I've looked online and it says it is Thrip.
A friend said just use a general insecticide. That didn't work.
I went to my local garden centre and they said it's earwigs, no, no earwigs.
Online again. A site says Nemetodes. I use nemetodes on the beds but not in the pots. Any ideas anyone.

Anne58 Mon 03-Aug-15 17:30:17

Not much of a dahlia fan, to be honest, but we had beds and beds of them where I worked once. We never had any problem with rotten buds, as the damn flock of peacocks used to peck them all off!

Isn't diluted detergent/washing up liquid type stuff supposed to kill some of the bugs? Or am I getting muddled up with greenfly?