Conditions May Be Ideal for Seedcorn Maggot

Conditions May Be Ideal for Seedcorn Maggot

While at a Syngenta Grow More Experience event last week, I spoke with Syngenta Agronomist Don Drader about something he has been seeing a lot of lately — seed corn maggot infestations. Seedcorn Maggots are found in every state but need ideal conditions to really be a problem — that would be warm, moist springs and is attracted to fields with a lot of organic matter in the soil.

He continues with why it may be difficult to diagnose the issue correctly,

Drader: "Seedcorn maggot what it does is enters the seed and once it makes the entry wound, it opens that wound for fungi in the soil like Pythium, or Fusarium to then enter the seed. We saw a lot of that this year, where we thought we had just disease now we are finding seedcorn maggot entry wounds that are allowing disease like lithium and Fusarium. A lot of the diseased seed that I collected was Fusarium — we know that seed treatment will do a good job on Fusarium but obviously if you have an open wound you don't have that protection."

So if you are thinking you might have some disease issues with your crops like pithier or Fusarium — Drader suggests

Drader: "Growers need to be aware that some of those issues that they have out there that we have been attributing to disease some of those disease issues are in fact initiated by the seed corn maggot. To properly identify that — I would encourage them to collect samples and take them in to your retailer or take them to the universities or the diagnostic labs to get identification. I think it is well worth the time."

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