Pests & diseases › Onion Maggots
Onion Maggots
White maggots tunneling into onion, leek and garlic bulbs.
Symptoms
- Wilting yellow foliage on onion plants
- Soft rotting bulbs with white maggots inside
- Plants pull up easily — rotten base
- Worst on seedling onions
Lifecycle
Three generations: May, July, September.
What to do
- Pull and bag (not compost) affected plants
- Avoid disturbing soil — releases attracting smell
If it's bad
- Spinosad drench at planting
Stop it coming back
- Floating row cover from planting
- Grow from sets rather than seed — less attractive
- Don't plant adjacent to recently-disturbed soil
- Sand collar around stem base
Crops it goes for
Plan the plot, track every sowing, cook the harvest
Sowing reminders and harvest forecasts for your own frost dates, the Seed Tin, Scan Centre for any label or packet, and the Potty Mouth Garden Club. Free to start.