Agapanthus under attack

A gall midge is spreading across the country ruining our agapanthus. Toby explains how to thwart it

- TOBY BUCKLAND

AGAPANTHUS hail from South Africa, and I’ve so many in the borders at Buckland Castle that I’m worried – not that they’ll take over like a herd of hungry springbok, but that they’ll fall prey to a bizarre 2-3mm-long grub that bores into the buds and ruins the flowers. I say bizarre, because the grubs and the flying midge that lay them have never been recorded outside of UK gardens. As such, they are a new species to science.

The discovery of any organism is exciting as it makes the world seem big. However, agapanthus gall midge has somehow arrived on our shores (presumably from South Africa), but without the insects, birds and bacteria that kept its numbers so small, it was a secret – until now.

Since its discovery here in 2014, and unbounded by predators, agapanthus gall midge has spread across the south of the UK, so its arrival on my agapanthus (and yours) isn’t a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’.