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…
Ugh. So far we've been fortunate and haven't had to deal with these beasties. Per UC-IPM "In California, the seedcorn maggot is abundant primarily in spring, during or following a wet cycle". Sounds like nirvana for seed corn maggots right now! Blasted rain. Just curious, when you're germinating your seeds, are you using a sterile seed starting mix, or soil from the garden?
I'm using a sterile mix right out of a bag. I caught one of the flies yesterday flying around in there.
Hi Rachel, wonder if you can sprinkle DE in over the seedlings. Maybe that would kill the maggots/flies too. It is supposed to kill most insects right or is it just the ones with exoskeletons?
I'm pretty sure it only affects insects with exoskeletons. It does work really well on our rabbits, chickens and goats though to combat fleas and lice.