Cabbage Maggot
The cabbage maggot may seriously injure cabbage, cauliflower, turnip, radish and related crucifer crops. Early-planted crucifers or seedbeds of late ones are more likely to be attacked. The young maggot begins feeding on the tender rootlets and then rasps out a channel in the main root of the plant. An early indication of attack to the cabbage plant is the plant wilting during the heat of the day. The plants may also take on a bluish cast. The plant either dies in a few days or persists in a sickly condition for some time. In cases where the plant dies quickly, there usually are a large number of maggots that riddle the root, making way for decay organisms to enter and take over quickly.
Description:
Cabbage maggot adults are true flies, slightly smaller than the common housefly. The flies themselves, which are gray and long-legged, are seldom seen by the home gardener. The larvae are white and legless, tapered towards the head, and have a pair of black mouth hooks which curve downward for rasping. The puparia are reddish or tan capsules resembling grains of wheat in the soil near the plant.
Adapted from the Cornell Cooperative Extension, 1999
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