ATTACK OF THE ROOT MAGGOTS!!

It all started like any other fine day here at the Broad Bay CSA.  The sun was shining, weather was sweet, and I was walking barefoot around the garden checking things out as I normally do.  The day before I had given the whole garden a nice dose of Neptune's Harvest Fish and Seaweed fertilizer.  Plants just love this ocean smelling liquid and show their thanks with lush green growth; which is why I was a little surprised to find a few of the cabbage plants looking a little droopy.  They had just recieved a nice dose of water and fertilizer, and weren't showing the love.  The real horror occured when I gave a little tug on one of the cabbage plants to test its all around health. Up came the plant with the greatest of ease,along with, to my disgust, hundreds of little white maggots.

Upon further investigation I have learned....surprise surprise, that these things are called root maggots, or cabbage maggots.  The adult female fly hatches in the spring and then proceeds to lay eggs at the base of brassicas (though brassicas are not their only targets). Once the maggots emerge from egg, they make their way down and start munching on the roots,until the roots are no more!  From above root damage below is displayed in the plant through its stunted growth and the discoloration of leaves.

While staring at these horrible little root maggots I had a memory from a few weeks back when I had just tilled the soil. I was observing little flies, slightly larger than gnats, hovering all around the freshly tilled ground.  I had made a mental note of this because it seemed strange.

In the dealing with the root maggots I have had many casualties. To my dismay, I have ripped up nearly a hundred plants; kale, mizuna, cabbage, brocoli, cauliflower,...........  the heading plants  (cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli) are unfortunately now too late to replant and get a decent crop, they just cannot handle the heat. 

Af for the control of these pests a few things are possible

1. Ripping up all infested plants and destroying them, therefore breaking the lifecycle

2. Covering all newly planted plants with horticultural cloth

3. Spraying diatomaceous earth on the freshly tilled/planted soil.  This is like shards of glass to an insect stopping them from landing on a surface.

4. Populating the soil with beneficial nematodes that like to eat the maggots in their larva stage

With a combination of all the above I will protect my brassica plants from this enemy species.

...cabbage plants not thriving, the maggots are busy munching away root..

Look very closely and you can see many maggots...

 DIE MAGGOTS DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!