Root Maggot Control - Garden Root Maggots

Description: Many species of the root maggot exist in home gardens throughout North America. Particularly destructive to early season plantings, they feed underground on succulent roots and attack a large variety of vegetable crops including radish, cabbage, carrot, turnip, and onions. Heavily infested roots are often riddles with tunnels and rotted. Affected plants lack vigor, may be stunted or yellowed, and often wilt during the heat of the day. In some cases, maggots may even chew through taproots, causing plants to die.

Adults (1/5 inch long) are dark gray flies that look like the common housefly, only smaller. They lay their eggs in the soil at the base of host plants and are very good at detecting newly planted seed beds. Maggots (1/3 - 1/4 inch long) are small, yellowish white, legless larvae with tapered or pointed heads and a rear end that is blunt.

Note: Tunneling and feeding by this pest creates entry points for rot diseases such as black rot.

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