Seedcorn Maggot, We Meet Again

After last year I thought I had learned my lesson dealing with seedcorn maggots. We didn’t plant out corn, squash and beans too early. Actually they aren’t even started yet. We put down compost and manure in the fall rather than the spring to make sure there wasn’t too much organic matter out. And I’m not direct seeding anything right now.

Apparently that wasn’t enough. They have gotten into my mini greenhouse and eaten my pepper, tomato and herb seeds. I was wondering why some pots weren’t sprouting at all. A closer look revealed the culprits. So now I’m stuck. What to do? Do I treat the pots with some chemical? Do I give up? Do I move the operation indoors and hope that my cats don’t eat the sprouts?

I think I’m just going to start over. I’ll pull out any pots that have germinated, dump the old ones, sanitize them and refill with new, clean soil and have another go at it. Of course this puts us even further behind schedule…