Thanks Laurie No chemicals in this yard! I try very hard not to use any pesticides as I grow alot for the birds and butterflies and such. I have an acre of land that is very private and fenced by trees, so it is doubtful I would get any drift of it- especially at the bottom of this hill. We did have some absolutely CRAZY temps here in NJ. all winter was mild- we had warm spring like days in February and then a few days of winter, followed by warm again- and it has been off and on ever since.. so it definatley ould be that.. but it seems odd to me that it would only be this ONE iris affected. all the rest are normal. it also seems to be bloomig prematurely! Nothing here is in bloom yet! it's nuts. My daffodils are still up and strong.. I will try to take a pic today at lunch hour. Thanks so much for responding. This hill is actually a "burm" of cruddy soil that they built up when they made the road that goes along side my house. and my property is on an old railroad bed. I find car parts and mattress springs in that hill sometimes..! I wonder if it is planted over some kind of junk that would affect it?.... thoughts? doenst my place sound lovely ? hahah

Something in the Solanaceae family, I would think. Compare to Physalis virginiana. Here is a link that might be useful: Physalis

Oh goodness, you don't want to go there. winter 2012-2013 I had an infestation of aphids that was beyond psychotic. I fought them with everything and they won. Once outside the ladybugs helped clean them, but they had suffered a lot due to the infestation. This year I didn't have issues until the temps started warming, this year I just washed them off with a spray of water weekly. Last year I used Neem oil, insecticidal soap, water, a lemon mixture I found on the web (it burned the leaves), I tried a few other things, NOTHING worked. It was horrible. Pam

I'd have come faster, Bruce, if you'd have offered me a beer... Worms that have broken apart, formed blisters or ulcers on the skin surface or look like a "string of pearls" are symptoms of worms near death from any number of reasons, but are not symptomatic of any one condition. These symptoms were once thought to be the result of "protein poinsong" (something I once believed many years ago as well), a mythical malady that has since been debunked by good science. When earthworms are introduced to an enviornment radically different from that one to which they are used their mortality rate does, indeed, climb, though physical damage as is being described is not all that common. I am guessing on this as much as anyone else, but I might suggest that it is shipping damage that at least some of you might be seeing. Now, here's where I annoy some commercial worm growers ::sigh::; The rotating harvesting equipment used by many larger-scaled worm growing operations are very physically hard on worms, causing an increase in mortality rates as high as 30% over a six week period following harvest. When worms harvested in this way are subsequently subjected to shipping in hot trucks over several days, the stress and trauma can be significant, resulting in the kind of damage being described. While it may not apply to everyone who has experienced large numbers of blistered, pinched-off worms, it is the culprit in many cases. Those of you seeing just a few worms now and then with the above described symptoms are simply seeing worms that have died, most often from "natural" causes. Now, Bruce, about that beer...? Kelly S