Maggoty things in leeks :(

[catgirl]

Hi everyone,

I went round to the allotment today after a short holiday in the Lake District to find that something has been eating my leeks. I was surprised to see that a lot of the plants appeared to be wilting and upon closer investigation found that lots of little maggot-like creatures had bored their way into the leeks and decimated them from the inside out. I've now lost pretty much my whole leek crop because when I cut them open to check, the little you-know-what's had eaten their way through the whole leek. I've attached a few photos for you to see.

Does anyone know what these things are called and how I can prevent this from happening again next year? It's my first year of growing leeks so I have never seen this before!

[chris]

Leek moth.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=652


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[Martin H]

I agree with Chris, looks like leek moth. Although if the maggots don't have little legs they might be allium leaf miner.

http://www.nsalg.org.uk/wp-content/u...eet-Jan-13.pdf

Leek Moth is spreading North rapidly, it's a shame it's made it to Merseyside already. Can Scotland be far behind?

The only solution seems to be netting.

[catgirl]

Thanks for your replies. I think it looks most like leek moth. Guess I'll have to net them next year.

[Jay22]

Leek Moth is spreading North rapidly, it's a shame it's made it to Merseyside already. Can Scotland be far behind?

The only solution seems to be netting.

They may need a passport first in a couple of weeks!

[chilli_grower]

I had those things in several of my leeks.

I just removed all the ones I could find, then washed the leeks, and made into soup.

Any remaining bugs just got cooked and then blended!!!!

THe soup was lovely....

[Jamesy_uk]

Tip

I had seen on here before someone mention cutting the leek leaves off at ground level, leaving them to regrow and then bagging up the tops and binning them to get rid of the leek moth.

I can confirm I tried this and it worked a treat, just check the larvae hasn't gone below ground level and you are good to go, they regrow fine, probably slows them down for awhile but its a small price to pay.

[Vince G]

We netted and the blighters still got in. You can still use most of the leek though. I find it just means you have to slice lenthways rather than in rounds because the caterpillars seem to always sit vertically.