Carrot flies

[Mr_Yan]

I pulled some carrots from my garden today and it looks like I have carrot fly damage.

Only answer / prevention to this is something like a floating row cover right?

 

[Oliver Buckle]

The flies cruise a bit above ground level looking for carrots so planting in fairly narrow beds with an eighteen inch poly 'wall' around them means they lift to get over the wall and miss the carrots before they come down the other side. They say a carrot fly can smell a pulled carrot from up to a mile away, so do thinning in late evening, preferably in the drizzle.

 

[Mr_Yan]

Now narrow is "fairly narrow"?

I have been building a single size raised bed as a standard in my garden. 30" wide and 95.5" long. And my goal is to have one crop or type of crop per bed per year.

1) I think I could easily make a frame to fit over a standard raised bed and have floating row cover or light weight shade cloth on that frame.

2) I could make the poly walls but then I risk trapping in a fly and giving it a feast of carrots.

I like the idea of thinning late in the day. I think I also heard something along the lines of this and NOT planting radish to define the row as pulling the radish will also disturb the carrots and ring the dinner bell for the carrot fly.

 

[lifegardener]

Have you considered planting some herbs with the carrots (Sage, Mint,Rosemary) ?

 

[headfullofbees]

I grow them in bins higher than 2ft6in (76cm) as the carrot fly cannot get that high, apparently.
If you already have the maggots in the soil, it's

 

[plot22]

Hi everyone
I have just joined the forum. I am from Mansfield in the UK. I have an allotment which I believe are called community gardens in the US which I rent from the council . I also have a 700q. metre back garden in which we have a large top of the range greenhouse ( best money I ever spent). We are 100% self sufficient veg wise and the excess we give to relatives and neighbours or take to a veg shop in the next town and swap it for fruit. I am not much of a fruit eater but my wife is.
Anyway after the introduction to the point. When I 1st took on my allotment I was plagued by carrot fly . I had an allotment with my late dad 20 years previous no carrot fly and fantastic carrots the reason being the allotment was on sandy soil on very windy site it simply blew them away. I read about putting a barrier up 1 metre high supposedly the carrot fly do not fly above this height. Oh yes when they are wind assisted they go over the top another disasterous season no carrots. Then I started covering them with mesh. OK until you have to thin them out or weed and then the fly is in. Plan C I bought a really large net 11metres by 3.66metres. I put the netting up and then get inside and set the carrots 6 rows in all and the end results no carrot fly. I now have 7 nets in total basically to cover alliums and brassicas but most importantly carrots. On our site if you do not cover it you will loose it. Forget the strain of carrots called Resistafly carrots tried it . Not much better. As far as I am concerned my method works and even at my age I get inside the net . The only problem that I have is digging them up but I have bought a short handled spade which helps the process no end. I hope that is of interest to my Canadian veg growers

 

[headfullofbees]

Welcome! Great first post!

 

[Marck]

Barrier methods seem to be the best option. This is good to know for when I do encounter Carrot Flies (Chamaepsila rosae).

I think exclusion by physical barriers may be a growing trend for controlling garden pests. I know one woman who has her whole vegetable garden within a large walk-in chicken-wire cage, even dwarf fruit trees are inside. This is to keep out the birds, squirrels, and deer.

I suppose excluding insects could be a two-edged sword, especially for fruit and seed crops, since pollinators and other beneficial insects would also be excluded.

 

[wkevinc]

I pulled some carrots from my garden today and it looks like I have carrot fly damage.

Only answer / prevention to this is something like a floating row cover right?

For an outdoor garden with a mild to moderate problem my first response would be to try to introduce a predator of carrot flies or their progeny to the local ecosystem. Not sure what that is specifically, but it could include toads, ladybugs, preying mantises, etc. Google would be helpful. Outdoors I really hesitate to use broad pesticides, even organic ones like neem or AzaMax because they can screw up the local ecosystem. A good garden is about establishing equilibrium with the things that live around it. Not just killing everything but the plant you like.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

For an outdoor garden with a mild to moderate problem my first response would be to try to introduce a predator of carrot flies or their progeny to the local ecosystem. Not sure what that is specifically, but it could include toads, ladybugs, preying mantises, etc. Google would be helpful. Outdoors I really hesitate to use broad pesticides, even organic ones like neem or AzaMax because they can screw up the local ecosystem. A good garden is about establishing equilibrium with the things that live around it. Not just killing everything but the plant you like.

I fully agree with the ethos, however, probably not too useful. Carrot fly have a very attuned sense of smell and travel long distances to carrots. Thin your carrots and if there is a fly within a mile downwind it will be on its way.

 

[Snatch]

I pulled some carrots from my garden today and it looks like I have carrot fly damage.

Only answer / prevention to this is something like a floating row cover right?

Companion planting with spring onions and or marigolds is said to work. You could plant in a raised bed. Carrot root fly us attracted by the smell and can detect it a mile away, so avoid thinning wherever possible, doing later in the day of during light rain if possible. After thinning/harvesting, cover with fleece. You could also put a barrier around the bed.

 

[plot22]

I have tried them all. Barriers metre high as the fly supposedly only flies this high but when he his wind assisted over the top he goes um um. One of my fellow allotment friends has a barrier cover in fine netting only problem when he has to pick some carrots for dinner he has to remove the netting um um. Another has a smaller net than mine but when he thins the carrots or has to pick some in they go. Carrots resistant to carrot fly the retailers must be joking. Setting onions and marigolds near carrots to mask the smell if Mr Fly and his mates are a mile away they still think its Christmas when they get a whiff which they will. I don't get carrot fly as my net is tall enough for me to get in and turn around in. I am 73 years old this year and I have found that it is the only way that I have been successfull. One problem that I have is cropping as I grow Sugarsnak which is a long sweet carrot in dry weather I cannot get them up. I have overcome this by purchasing a short handled spade and working my way down the rows.