Lift and store daffodil and tulip bulbs - discard any soft bulbs along with any infested with eelworms and
bulb fly grubs.
RESULTS from this year's HGCA survey looking at the incidence of wheat bulb fly suggest that numbers are low.
The survey, carried out by ADAS, aims to establish the annual incidence of wheat bulb fly in the autumn to enable farmers to make informed decisions on the need to use an insecticidal seed treatment.
A less common cause of daffodil blindness is narcissus
bulb fly, which looks like a bluebottle and lays eggs in the small hole in the top of the bulb.
Charles Marriot believes the unusual appetite of the wheat bulb fly (WBF), which is estimated to cost farmers in the UK up to pounds 33 million a year, means that a decoy system might be developed to save wheat crops while reducing the need for powerful pesticides such as organophosphates.
"We found that the wheat bulb fly has some strange habits.
AYOUR daffodils appear to have been attacked by narcissus
bulb fly. Affected bulbs have a soft neck and when split open the core will be full of brown gunge.
The first year's results from the HGCA survey looking at the incidence of wheat bulb fly suggest that 50% of fields at risk in eastern England were above the damage threshold.
David Green, of Adas, who is carrying out the survey, said: "The three-year survey aims to establish the annual incidence of wheat bulb fly in the autumn so as to allow farmers to decide on the need for seed treatment.
An infestation of
bulb fly, which will eventually lead to rot, may also be the culprit.
Relatively large areas of late-sown wheat and poor early winter-growing conditions mean many wheat crops across the country are at particular risk from wheat bulb fly damage this year, warns RAGT agronomy specialist Dr Cathy Hooper.
Dr Hooper said: "Crops drilled in September and early October are generally well-enough established and tillered to cope with a degree of wheat bulb fly infestation.