Maggots!!!

I have some Japanese Maples and a Purple Beech tree in training, to fertilize them I have been using rape seed cakes. Today i noticed some little grub like larvae, which I later identified as House Fly larvae and pupae. The rape seed cakes appear to have rotted and all the pots had been infested with them. My wife and spent about about 2 hours picking through the pots. I think I will be repotting them. There were so many, and there is probably still more. Has anyone experienced this same problem with the rotting cakes and maggots? If so, how did you handle the pests? Is this how rape seed cakes are designed to work?
Please Help

Regards

They often do attract maggots, usually very small ones. It is unusual for the whole pot to become infested though. Some fertiliser pellets have an insecticide added, but they are really just a sign of natural breakdown of the organic into nutrients and shouldn't be worried about. They usually congregate just under the pellet. I wonder whether the ones distributed in your soil are the same?

I wouldn't repot them, especially if they are just house fly maggots. Those would do no harm at all to your tree. If they are just eating the pellet as it decomposes, they will just pupate and fly away. With you mentioning them being distributed in the rootball, I wonder if they may be something else. Please tell me that these maggots don't have a brown head?

You also might ask whether the soil is constantly too damp.

This is why I like Osmocote. However, fly maggots are not going to do anything to your trees. I agree with Jim that you should evaluate the moisture level of the soil. When I see fungus gnat larvae in soil, I don't worry about the gnats, I worry that the soil is too soggy.

The grubs you would have to worry about would be beetle larvae. As Kev points out, they would have shiny brown heads. I'm thinking of asiatic beetles and japanese beetles: their larvae suck on plant roots and can cause minor damage.

I did not find any in the root ball, they were more concentrated around the cakes; but they were about near the surface up to about 1" deep. There were some near the root ball but as near as I can tell (without much disruption) they are not in the roots. As for the appearance they are small and white about 5-7cm the head is very small mostly white with some very slight dark markings, perhaps eyes/mouth; and the other end is pretty round. Perhaps, I will have to reevaluate the soil moisture, Thanks for the help and advise.

Regards

The above discussion is a large part of why I have used DynaGro (chemical) products for 10-11 years.

Pat

JimLewis wrote:Conceptualize this thing: Yourself as two men, each taller than the other.

I finally got it. I am really two women, each one fatter than the other.
Iris

bonsaisr wrote:

JimLewis wrote:Conceptualize this thing: Yourself as two men, each taller than the other.

I finally got it. I am really two women, each one fatter than the other.
Iris

Me too, Iris. God I hate that other woman!