hi all, i took some hips from a garden center they came from climbing rose bushes anyway the seeds had little black bumps on them did’nt think much of it . i planted the seeds in
february the seeds did not come up except one and it had a magget comming out of the shell! seedling is alive but i pulled up the other seeds and they are full of white-clear’
maggets with black heads any one know what they are? 8 seeds have been thrown away so far all with maggets . please help! patrick
Patrick,
This is your lucky day. Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you, and greetings from the Megastigmus Cooperative in your neighborhood.
The “maggots” you are seeing are probably the larvae of the chalcid wasp, Megastigmus aculeatus or one of its near kin. Although chalcid wasps are best known for their association with Rosa multiflora, they are not fussy and will lay eggs in any rose seeds that are not too tough for them to penetrate.
The good news is that the chalcids won’t sting you. The bad news is that nearly all the seeds you harvested are likely not to germinate because the embryo inside has been eaten by a chalcid wasp larva. If you examine them carefully you will probably find a tiny hole in each where the adult wasp has emerged.
Better luck next year. You might want to avoid harvesting hips there next year–chances are good to excellent that the seeds will be infested and will give you almost no germinations.
Peter
Well you learn something new every day!
Peter’s correct about the Chalcid Wasp. I get a percentage of hips with these in them every year. Not enough to severely impact my work, but a few here and there. Some plants attract them more than others, as one might expect.