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Kalamazoo, MI (zemmie640@yahoo.com)

What's the best thing to use in starting pots if you suspect seed corn maggots in your starting mix? I just finished sterilizing some mix for our four backup plants (ugh) but we already have two watermelon plants in pots breaking the surface of the suspect mix. From what I've read Merit doesn't seem to be too effective, but I'm not sure if maybe some Dylox watered in would be too much for the seedlings. Just wondering if anyone has had any success with this problem.

Also, since losing four plants in the patch in two days is not something we'd care to repeat, any advice on what to apply to our patch to help eliminate the stupid things would be much appreciated. We're going to give nematodes a try on Thursday, guess they can't hurt, but we also want to put down some Dylox asap. Not sure how to handle this, not sure what will work and get down far enough to kill them, we found most of them at about 3-4 inches under the soil line, and a few more as far down as 10 inches. There were ten or less at each plant, so we're still not sure if it was the mix or our patch, either way I'd love to wipe them out before the backup plants go in next week. Help!

Thanks, Kelly

5/5/2009 11:08:02 PM

Kalamazoo, MI (zemmie640@yahoo.com)

Well, we've tenatively narrowed it down to our patch instead of the starting mix. We started two plants for someone else with a separate patch and those are doing just fine.

5/6/2009 4:27:39 PM

Pataskala,OH

Do you have a hoop house>

5/6/2009 5:24:53 PM

Kalamazoo, MI (zemmie640@yahoo.com)

Yes each plant has a seperate green house. We've never had a problem before so we figure they must have come in the composted manure we brought in this spring. Parts of it were less composted than others.

5/6/2009 5:35:36 PM

Springfield, VT

The maggots will go away after the soil warms and they complete their life cycle. In the past to combat the I have used triacide (warrior T) and watered the plant with a half strength solution. The other thing to avoid is burying any of the stem, if they get in the stem it usually means the plant is dead. A few at the roots only slow the plant a little.

5/6/2009 6:52:14 PM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

Careful applying anything inside the hoophouse..

5/6/2009 8:38:09 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Never saw corn seed maggots in sterile mix. Manure yes.

Was fresh manure used?

5/7/2009 2:10:22 PM

Kalamazoo, MI (zemmie640@yahoo.com)

Yes we used manure, mostly composted but parts of it were more compsted than others. We were going to use some Dylox on the "ornamental" patch but weren't sure if this would work, or be harmful to the seedlings or nemotodes. In reading other posts Merit didn't seem to be 100% effective, so we were looking for other options.

5/7/2009 4:35:09 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Dylox is a contanct insecticide....REAL fast kill! Not labeled as you know. If the CSM's are already inside then the plants are finished. Start backups. If the soil in the patch is warm, the CSM's will have moved on.

5/8/2009 3:49:57 PM