help maggots!

[robsorchids]

i have a very odd pest to report, latley (over the last 2 years) several plants that are tuberous in nature have sucumb to a horrible hord of maggots, the interiors of the tubers were absoloutley infested with the things!

it started of with a arum cornutum, i found the tubers were very soft, at first i suspected rot (as you do) but as i dissected the tuber it seems these maggots were the ones responsible for creating a nasty pulp as this is what they were feeding on.

i also found them inside ariseama, epipactis gigantea rhizhomes, and now to my sadness my only ophrys apipera was full of them :-(

can anyone explain what has laid these in the tubers (some sort of fly similar to narccisus fly perhaps?)

im concerned other prized plants are going to fall prey to whatever is causing this.

thanks for your help

rob

[Slug Killer]

Hi Rob, so to hear whats been happening to your collection. I suspect its vine weevil you have which needs to be cured by soaking everything in Provado, see the link below with pictures. Hope this helps

http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0600/vineweevil.asp

[art600]

Rob

Any chance of posting a picture of the maggots - it would greatly help identification.

[Paul T]

Rob,

Is it possible that these maggots are a symptom "after the fact"?  I.e they are feeding on rotting material after the tubers have started rotting, rather than being the reason the tuber is rotting in the first place?

[Lesley Cox]

Why would one want to help maggots? (Sorry)

Leather jackets come in swarms (the larvae of the daddy-long-legs). They are about 2cms long, black and well, leathery, to look at. A picture would help though.

[Maggi Young]

Rob,

Is it possible that these maggots are a symptom "after the fact"?  I.e they are feeding on rotting material after the tubers have started rotting, rather than being the reason the tuber is rotting in the first place?

Hmm! Well, I suppose that COULD be , Paul, but my money is on the maggots being the primary cause, no matter WHAT they look like! A photo is a good idea, though, because otherwise we are all in the dark, as it were

[Lesley Cox]

For leather jackets (which I've not found in cultivated areas but only under large pots or trays where the soil has become very compacted and puggy, with the leatherjackets on or very close to the surface) I simply pour boiling water on them. Of course you couldn't do that onto a group of bulbs.

[Lesley Cox]

I've never seen the adults laying but I sometimes have a lot of daddy-long-legs (or mummy-long-legs) in my tunnel house and I go out with a can of fly spray and deal to them. The floor of the house has a layer of gravel and when that's moved sometimes the leather jackets are there.

[Rodger Whitlock]

The narcissus fly will attack bulbous plants in families other than the Amaryllidaceae. Perhaps that is what you have.

Since you say "maggots", not just one maggot, it could be the lesser narcissus fly.

The larger fly is well documented photographically at http://www.srgc.org.uk/bulblog/log2007/031007/log.html but I am unable to find a photograph of the lesser narcissus fly.

[Anthony Darby]

This time of year there are small crane flies emerging. The females are wingless. I have seen the large ones (Tipula oleracea or T. paludosa) ovipositing in my lawn. These are not wingless but just walk quickly across the grass bobbing up and down for each egg laid.