Problem Identifier Unit Screen//v.w/ RR Template

Problem Identifier Unit Screen//v.w/ RR Template Root Maggots

Problem
Young plants wilt in the heat of the day. They may later turn yellow and die. Soft-bodied, yellow-white maggots, about ¼ inch long, are feeding in the roots. The roots are honeycombed with slimy channels and scarred by brown grooves.

Analysis
(Hylemya species)

Root maggots are most numerous during cool, wet weather in spring, early summer, and fall. Early maggots attack the roots, stems, and seeds of radishes, cabbage, broccoli, and turnips in the spring and early summer. Later insects damage fall crops. The adult is a gray fly slightly smaller than a housefly, with black stripes and bristles down its back. It lays eggs on stems and nearby soil. The maggots hatch in 2 to 5 days and tunnel into radish roots, making them inedible.

Solution
Once the growing plant wilts and turns yellow, nothing can be done. To control maggots in the next planting of radishes, mix an insecticide containing chlorpyrifos or diazinon 4 to 6 inches into the soil before seeding. Control lasts about 1 month. To prevent egg laying, screen adult flies from the seedbed with a cheesecloth cover.

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