In every garden where fruit is also grown, sooner or later maggots also appear. An annoying nuisance for self-sufficient and allotment gardeners. For the species that do not live too differently, there are just as few different control methods.
Birds like to eat maggots
Which maggot species are relevant here
In our latitudes there are only a handful of species of maggots that occur frequently and can cause significant damage. Only the insect larvae of dipterans, which mainly include fly species, are called maggots. The following are particularly relevant for the local garden culture:
- cherry fruit fly
- cherry vinegar fly
- walnut fruit fly
As tree and shrub fruit pests, the cherry fruit fly, the cherry vinegar fly and the walnut fruit fly have relatively similar lifestyles and infestation cycles. All have a one-year life cycle and can therefore cause recurring troubles for years.
To combat this, the following measures are generally recommended:
- Collecting and picking up all infested fruit
- Cover the tree/shrub with insect protection nets
- install traps
- Lay out floor protection fleece
- Natural predators
Gathering infested fruit
Because the maggots are in the fruit, and sometimes pupate there, harvesting and scavenging from the ground is a first, direct, and logical route to containment. Do not dispose of the fruit in the compost where the maggots can develop and overwinter, but in organic waste.
Covering the plants with insect protection nets
This method is very effective, but also quite time-consuming for larger trees. It is mainly used in agricultural fruit growing. However, if you primarily deal with spotted drosophila in smaller berry bushes, it can be a viable solution. The adult flies cannot get through the close-meshed fabric of the nets and are thus effectively prevented from laying their eggs.
Of course, the flight time of the identified pest species must be taken into account. Set up the nets accordingly in good time. Yellow boards can also help with “monitoring”.
fall
Yellow boards, on the other hand, serve less as traps, their catch rate is simply too low. Other traps such as pheromone traps or bottles of vinegar water and washing-up liquid suspended in bushes and trees can at best contain the infestation somewhat and reduce the mating rate. However, they are well suited for stock control and subsequent, adapted control measures.
floor protection fleece
This method is very effective because it prevents pupated maggots in the soil from hatching and can significantly slow down the development of another generation of pests. Lay the fleece under a tree or shrub infested last year before the pest hatches. It keeps the hatching imagos on the ground and can also kill them in hot weather. However, the method is of no use with cherry vinegar flies, because they overwinter as adult flies and not as pupated maggots in the ground.
Natural predators
The targeted use of beneficial insects is particularly useful against cherry vinegar flies and cherry fruit flies. Ichneumon wasps (€18.99) Birds such as swallows and swifts, ground beetles, but also free-ranging chickens that peck the maggots out of the ground are helpful pest decimators.