How To Get Rid Of Maggots In Your Garden

You want to know how to get rid of maggots in your garden or on your balcony to protect your plants against those unpleasant little friends?

Great! Stick with me since I will show you many easy but yet effective ways to deter maggots in a proper manner.

Maggot Overview

Short description	Maggots are larvae of flies. They often feed on various garden plants to become bigger and to eventually turn into flies later in their lifecycle.
Scientific name	Diptera.
Lifespan	Around one month.
What plants do they like?	Peas, beans, radish, kale, cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts and many more.
Symptoms	Yellow spots, white stripes or pinholes on plant leaves.
Distribution	Worldwide.
Potential damage	Maggots can damage the roots of your plants. Moreover, they can also feed on the plant material or on the crops of your plants. In turn, your yields tend to be much lower with maggot infestation.
Control options	Chemical, biological and cultural.
Treatment difficulty	Intermediate.
Natural predators	Nematodes, Rove beetles, Birds.

How to get rid of Maggots

1. Slug fences can help to keep away root maggots

One simple but yet effective way to keep away maggots from your plants is to install slug fences. If you do so, make sure that you install them deep into the ground so that there will be no way for maggots to reach the roots of your plants underground.

If you don’t find big enough slug fences in the store, you can also just make your own slug fences from plastic materials to keep away maggots as best as possible.

2. Use stinging nettles to deter maggots

You can also collect some stinging nettles and place them next to your plants. Many maggot species don’t like the taste of stinging nettles.

Hence, when it rains, rainwater will extract some components from those stinging nettles and will wash them through the soil to the roots of your plants.

In turn, you may be able to deter maggots through this completely natural measure.

3. Garlic can help as well

Instead of stinging nettles, you can also just use some garlic from the store and place it in the soil next to your plants you want to protect against maggots.

Maggots and other pests don’t like the taste of garlic at all and you may therefore be able to deter maggots without any additional interventions by using this simple trick.

4. Deter maggots with diatomite

Diatomite, also known as kieselgur, is another simple but yet efficient way to get rid of maggots. You can buy it from your local garden center or online.

You can just put some diatomite onto the soil next to your plants to prevent egg-laying of maggots and therefore to control maggot populations in your garden.

5. Flour can help to deter maggots as well

You can also just use some flour and put it next to your plants. By doing so, you can deter maggots in a completely natural manner.

If you are able to see maggots with your bare eye, you can also just spread some flour onto them and the flour will take away water from the maggots’ bodies. In turn, populations can be greatly reduced through this measure.

6. Install some sticky traps

You can also install sticky traps and hope that maggots will be attracted to those traps and lured away from your plants. You can just get those traps in your garden center or from many online vendors.

Those traps are usually rather cheap and also easy to install and you should therefore just give it a try.

7. Natural predators can help to reduce maggot populations

You can also rely on natural predators to reduce maggot populations in your garden. You can just buy some nematode larvae and spread them near your plants.

However, please note that while you might get rid of maggots by doing so, you will now have a nematode problem in your garden and you also have to get rid of nematodes somehow.

Hence, this is not the preferred measure I would recommend if you don’t know what you are doing.

8. Install a birdhouse

Since birds are natural predators of maggots as well, you can just install a birdhouse in your garden and attract more birds that can feed on maggots and therefore reduce maggot populations.

9. Get rid of maggots with chemical pesticides

If nothing else helps, you can also try to get rid of maggots by using pyrethrin or other chemical measures. However, please note that those chemical pesticides are extremely harmful to our environment and that you should only use them carefully.

10. Keep your garden tidy

The tidier you keep your garden, the fewer space maggots have to overwinter and to spread in spring and summer. Hence, make sure to remove weeds and to also remove any other unnecessary plant materials from your lawn to give maggots no space to grow in populations.

What’s left to say?

Now that you know how to get rid of maggots, you may also want to check out my grower’s guides and my companion plant articles as well if you want to learn more about gardening in general.

About the Author

My name is Andreas and I’m really passionate about our environment and also about growing plants. In fact, I have grown several different plants over many years. I love to see my plants grow and also always try new things to improve my overall conditions at home.

In my blog posts, I want to share my experiences with you so that you can become successful in growing various different plants and improving your home as well, even though you might still be a beginner right now.