Garlic is a stinky , mordacious bulb . For this grounds , it ’s logical to adopt that most pestilence will pull up stakes it alone .
It ’s evenused as a gadfly deterrentin the garden , plant as a companionfor rose , peppers , and tomato to keep pesky insects away .
But we think it ’s delicious , so why should n’t the hemipteron ? There are some creepy crawlies out there that are immune to garlic ’s sulphuric bite .
Dry bulb mites on a leaf. Photo by Frank Peairs, Bugwood.org, viaCC BY-SA
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In this article , we ’ll take a look at the top five pestilence that can damage this fragrant member of theAlliumgenus .
Here are the pest we ’ll extend :
Dry bulb mites on a leaf. Photo by Frank Peairs, Bugwood.org, viaCC BY-SA
The Top 5 Garlic Pests
1. Bulb Mites
There are several types of bulb mites that plague ail and otherAlliums , but harmonize to researchers Agnieszka Majer , Brian Rector , et al . , in a paper published in theExperimental and Applied Acarology Journal , wry bulb tinge are one of the most meaning and widespread garlic pests .
Dry bulb mites are part of the same systematic family , Arachnida , as wanderer and ticks . This pesky critter is believe an eriophyid pinch , though its scientific name isAceria tulipae .
Dry bulb jot are usually 0.3 millimeters long or smaller at maturity , and look like tiny , curled worm .
They go through their entire aliveness cyclein just one to two week , so you ’re likely to see them in every level – from egg to larva to nymph to adult – at any time of the class . If you have a strong magnifying meth , that is .
These mites spend the winter inside stored clove or in the ground with gloaming - planted garlic .
dependable to their name , dry bulb mites feed only on bulbs : garlic , tulip , onion , and lily , to be precise .
They live between the layers of a garlic Eugenia aromaticum or inside the leaves and feast from within , often causing galls to appear . Other signs of dry bulb mite infestation include twisted , stunted folio and failure to get past a sure point .
The other major mite group that feasts on garlic are the bulb touch of theRhizoglyphusgenus , most particularlyR. echinopus . These bulb mites look like squishy , damp drop , have four sets of legs , and give a size of 0.5 to 1 millimeter in length .
Like the ironical bulb mite , this one also completes its life cycle in two hebdomad . Its egg are white and ellipse - shaped .
Larvae come out with three pairs of legs , but nymphs and adults have the full four sets .
Plants affect by bulb mite will often be stunted – or you might not find anything until the clove are stored and begin to rot .
If you notice brownish spot and decline on the wrapper and clove , you’re able to put both types of bulb touch high on your list of suspect .
With all type , the females lay eggs on the leave of your plant , and when the eggs open up , they release dozens of hungry larva that can ruin your crop .
Larvae , nymphs , and grownup pinch will all feast on every part of a electric-light bulb , whether it ’s in the earth or harvested .
you may still eat whatever ’s left of your Eugenia aromaticum after bulb pinch get to them , but it ’s adept to plow them before they bankrupt your harvest .
How to Manage Bulb Mites
Bulb mites are resistant to chemical pesticides , so your adept bet is to manage them with ethnical , predatory , and organic pestilence control methods .
Mites can live in the ground through successive growing seasons , so it ’s important to rotate your crop and avoid planting alliums in the same area for the next four year .
Do n’t designate araised bedto be your garlic layer forevermore . rather , constitute your garlic there one year , flip it out for carrotsthe next , and so on .
Only use the same raised bed or other planting expanse – or the same soil , for that matter – to raise alliums again after four year have die .
But that ’s not all . It ’s also crucial to avoid plantingAlliumsafter growing brassicas , corn , wheat berry , or skunk in the same area , as theseplay host to mites as well .
concord to experts at the University of California ’s Integrated Pest Management Program , soaking seed cloves in hot waterat 130 ° F for 10 - 20 minute before planting can minify the chance of plague by killing any exist mites or nut .
They also note that thiscaninhibit sprouting , and body of water temperatures over 132 ° F can damage the Syzygium aromaticum tissue paper – so keep a cooking thermometer handy .
you could also handle plague by introducingbeneficial predatory insectssuch as rove beetles , Dalotia coriaria .
Live Rove Beetles , Dalotia coriaria
draw and destroy the septic plant or industrial plant , and then lease promiscuous one to two live rove mallet per square base of the moved area .
you may purchase rove beetlesfrom Arbico Organicsin packs of 100 for smaller gardens , all the way up to 3,000 per software system for great crops .
These beetles wo n’t harm your garden , but they ’ll fete on the bulb mites .
Bonide Neem crude
you may also use an constituent insect powder to spray the entire grow area , grant to package pedagogy , like this neem fossil oil - based Cartesian product from Bonide , uncommitted from Arbico Organics .
2. Leafminers
Allium leafminers , Phytomyza gymnostoma , are small yellow and fatal flies that lay tiny , curled , white egg on the underside of farewell .
When those orchis hatch into larvae , the milklike - xanthous , 8 - millimeter - long maggot tunnel inside the leaves , run through the tissue paper . They continue to do so as they become into red - orange , 3.5 - millimeter - long pupae .
They will also eat their way down into the bulb themselves .
Telltale white , curve squiggle and hole on the stalks and leaf will alert you to the presence of these wretched little wight .
How to Manage Leafminers
If leafminers are a known trouble in your area , consider installingfloating row coversto keep grownup tent flap away from your crops .
ensure to place them in good order after planting in the spring . you may also install them during fall planting , as leafminer tent-fly often calculate for hostAlliumsto overwinter in , and you do n’t require them to take your garlic crop .
Keep the area around your plants mulched and sess - free tolimit the bedcover of leafminers .
And as shortly as you see that telltale bloodless bar on a leaf anywhere in your garden , remove and destruct the leaf like a shot .
keep to jibe the area regularly , to check that any additional larvae are destroyed before they can damage your plants .
Leafminers breed promptly , specially in fond weather , when their lifetime cycle can take as little as two weeks to fill in , often ending with the mature adults laying more egg .
As far as predators go , female parasitical wasps ( Diglyphus isaea ) assay out leafminer larvae , paralyse them , and lay egg on the larva . The wasp larvae that hachure feast on the leafminer larvae .
Within a yoke of workweek , the wasp larvae will turn into full - grow parasitic wasps that will then kill more leafminers .
Parasitic Wasps
Parasitic WASP to set easy in your garden areavailable at Arbico Organicsor at your local nursery .
If the infestation gets bad enough to warrant the usance of an insect powder , try using spinosad , a chemicalnaturally derived from the land bacteriaSaccharopolyspora spinosa .
Monterey Garden Spinosad Insect Spray
This is your best wager because spinosad is an organic insecticide that does minimal damage to the beneficial predatory bugs you do n’t require to get disembarrass of – like parasitical WASP .
you could find spinosad sprayavailable from Arbico Organics .
3. Nematodes
Some nematode worm are beneficial to plants , but not the garlic bloat nematode , Ditylenchus dipsaci .
These categorical , microscopic , soil - dwelling roundworms complete their entirelife cycle in about 21 dayswithin the bulbs , stems , and leave of your garlic .
Feeding destruct the plant , get the leafage to wrick yellow and wilt . The ruin electric light often swell up – or bloat , hence the name “ garlic bloat nematode ” – before turn lenient and brown , and they become prime territory for fungal infection .
How to Manage Nematodes
nematode can endure in dead , dried out host tissue paper , so check that your planting sphere is free ofdeadAlliumplant cloth .
If you plantAlliumcrops in an expanse one class , debar planting anyAlliumsthere again for the next four years .
You should also head off plantingcelery , parsley , hydrangeas , bloom bulbs , andalfalfain successive years , as the nematodes like to feast on those crops as well .
Keep the garden free of weed , as the pests can live in legion green goddess – particularly field thistle and haired nightshade – that are hem in your garlic . They ’ll happily make the short head trip from there to your precious bulbs .
It ’s also important to clean and hygienise your garden tools before and between each planting labor . Nematodes ca n’t move very far on their own , but they ’re easy spread through septic gardening instrument , boxing glove , and even on the bottoms of yourfavorite horticulture shoe !
Most nematode infestations bechance because an afflicted Eugenia aromaticum is unwittingly planted in the garden . To assure that nematode are n’t living in your source garlic , you may soak clove in 120 ° atomic number 9 water for 20 moment to heat treat them .
The high-pitched temperature should kill any subsist bugs or testicle . But note that the experts at theUniversity of Maine Cooperative Extensiondo not recommend doing this without professional equipment . Instead , purchase high temperature treat seed garlic from a reputable beginning .
As for predator , remember those good roundworm I mentioned earlier ? Now ’s the time to try enclose them to your infect garlic piece .
5 Million Live Sf roundworm
Try let open this package of five million liveSfnematodes ( Steinernema feltiae),available from Arbico Organics .
Arbico recommends adding five millionSfnematodes to every 1,600 square metrical foot of ground . The beneficial nematodes will parasitize the bad ones , killing them .
Check out our guidebook to learn more about usingbeneficial nematodes to control garden pests .
If you ’d rather use an insect powder , a nebuliser made with ahigh compactness of neem oilcan wipe out parasitic roundworm while leaving beneficial 1 unharmed .
To make your own neem oil spray , add 1 teaspoon neem oil and 1/2 teaspoon ravisher soap to 1 quart lovesome water . meld well and add to a spray bottle , then spray your affected plants until they ’re damp .
Reapply as want , once a calendar week .
4. Onion Maggots
Unlike roundworm , onion maggot ( Delia antiqua ) , are liberal , growing to about 1 centimeter long , and they cantravel . Well , they can when they ’re mature flies , anyway .
Delia antiquapupae hang out in the soil all winter . But in springtime , they emerge from the grease as adult tent flap who’lltravel up to a mileto find your garlic plant , for lay their eggs in the skirt soil , or occasionally on the leaves .
The newly hatched larvae , or maggots , will eat everything : roots , incandescent lamp , stems , and leave-taking .
The eggs favor cool temperatures , and perish when the first inch of territory make a temperature of 95 ° F . Once the larvae hatch , they head for the root , and their munching will put down the full root system of your plants . The first signs of onion plant maggot damage are wilted or stunted leaves .
To obtain out if the flies are in your garden , set icteric sticky cards around your crops . If you ensnare narrow - corporate , five- to seven - millimeter - foresightful flies with humped back , it ’s sentence to get quick to manage some maggot .
How to Manage Onion Maggots
Crop rotation will definitely help to keep onion maggot – the larvae of onion plant flies – from ravaging your garlic harvest year after year . Do n’t plant anyAlliumsin the same soil in consecutive years , and follow the every - four - class gyration guideline delineate above .
Also , consider sowing garlic in raised bed or containers . The loose , well - draining dirt in containers is less favorable to onion fly front than garden soil . And since onion fly typically start their annual life wheel in the middle of May , that ’s a undecomposed time to coiffe jaundiced sticky cards out in your garden to see how many you ’re address with . Try these , available from Arbico Organics .
you may also get over your harvest with a float run-in cover straightaway after you plant life seeds or transplant seedling , to prevent mature female onion flies from laying eggs – which look like grains of white Elmer Leopold Rice .
As an extra safeguard , consider addingdiatomaceous earthto the sphere around your works , to kill the delicate - bodied larva once they hatch . Reapply after menses of pelting .
fortuitously for you , there are several predatory hemipterous insect that feast on onion maggot . Beneficial liveSfnematodes are one of these . Rove beetles , as described above , are another .
Take your pick !
If you see any Allium cepa fly eggs , open out the affected soil and plants , and spray the area with insecticide .
For a raw gadfly control choice , take a spinosad - base sprayer .
Most chemical pesticides for regale an infestation of onion plant maggots aim the larva , and should be mete out at seeding time .
you’re able to practice a impenetrable obligation pesticide likeTrigard or Lorsbanat the time of planting , but mind : these can also kill beneficial insect , and they but wo n’t get rid of onion plant maggots that have already hatch .
For that , you ’re secure off with a predatory dominance method via good insects .
5. Thrips
These flyspeck bug , less than 1 millimeter in size , are common throughout the garden , and they ’re a real annoyance to nurseryman everywhere .
Allium cepa thrip , Thrips tabaci , and Western flower thrip , Frankliniella occidentalis , specifically assail ail and other members of theAlliumgenus by wet-nurse the succus from their leaves .
Onion thripid are narrow , translucent orange in color , and slenderly evocative of bees , but much tinier at just over 1 millimeter long .
Western flower thrips are 1.5 millimeters long , narrow , and translucent yellow with a black streak between their wings .
Both are bantam , but visible to the bare eye .
thripid - infested leave will appear dotted with whitish spots . They may also take on a silvery hue .
Thrips do n’t immediately kill plants , but over prison term they can have a lot of equipment casualty to a industrial plant ’s overall health , leaving itsusceptible to disease .
How to Manage Thrips
As always , crop gyration is advisable here , as is observe your garlic plot mourning band - free . Thrips can well move from sess to your garlic plant .
Watering from above ( via overhead irrigation ) can also helpkeep plants thrip - free , as these bug boom in hot , juiceless conditions .
Once an infestation breaks out , thrips are best controlled by natural predators like green lacewing fly , ladybug , parasitic wasps , minute plagiarist hemipteran , andbeneficialSfnematodes . To ensure that there ’s a healthy predator universe , found a diverse vegetable garden that draw in beneficial insects .
If you havedandelions in your yard , leave them there ! They attract lacewing , as dodill , coriander , andfennelflowers .
Another choice is to purchase predatory bugs from a local nursery , orfrom Arbico Organics .
Bonide Insecticidal Soap
you may also try using insecticidal soap , like this onefrom Arbico Organics , for moderate infestation – and spinosad or neem oil spray for heavy infestations .
You should steer clear of rough chemical substance pesticides because they can kill beneficial predatory insects , which are one of the top natural defence against thrips terms for plate gardeners .
scan more about controlling thripid here .
Garlic Pests Begone
Now that you know the five most potential ravagers of your wanted garlic crop , you may prepare to fend the destructive critters off . That older saying , an ounce of prevention is worth a pounding of remedy , is especially true when it comes to keep your industrial plant pestilence - free .
By circumvolve craw , cover newly plant seedlings , and providing your garlic with decent soil drain and watering , you may avoid a circumstances of pest issues .
To learn Allium sativum in your garden , correspond out these templet next :
© require the Experts , LLC . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.See our TOSfor more details . primitively release on April 21st , 2020 . Last updated June 25th , 2023 . Cartesian product photos via Arbico Organics . Uncredited photo : Shutterstock . With additional writing and redaction by Clare Groom and Allison Sidhu .
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Laura Ojeda Melchor
