I went into my local garden centre in Shrewsbury to ask for some solution to kill off the carrot fly which has infested my carrots. I was told that the EU had banned the substance I needed. It is this very fact that they are getting into every single aspect of our lives which is so very annoying and totally unacceptable. Why should these faceless unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats decide how we in Shropshire should deal with our kitchen gardens!?
I have 16 raised beds and am very proud of being able to grow all of our own vegetables for the family. Everything is grown naturally without fertilizers and I have not used any chemicals at all this year. This is the first time this summer that I have needed to do something like this to save a crop and the EU has prevented me! I become so desperately disillusioned with the EU when these types of things happen!
Please see below some information on carrot fly and the chemical 'dieldrin' which used to be used to treat it, but is now banned under the EU directive 79/117/EEC.
Carrot fly (Psila rosae)
Plants affected
Carrot, parsnip, parsley and celery.
Symptoms
Rusty brown scars ring carrot roots, making them inedible, and susceptible to secondary rots. When the roots are cut through tunnels are revealed, often inhabited by slender creamy yellow maggots up to 9mm long.
Cause
The maggots hatch from eggs laid by the carrot fly. Newly hatched larvae feed on the fine roots but later bore into the tap roots. The brown scars are where tunnels near the surface have collapsed. Two or three generations of carrot fly can occur between May and September, with the pest overwintering as larvae or pupae.
Prevention
Sow sparsely to avoid thinning the seedlings. Female carrot flies are attracted by the smell released when surplus plants are removed.
Late sown carrots (after mid-May) avoid the first generation of this pest; similarly carrots harvested before late August avoid the second generation.
Protect vulnerable crops by surrounding them with 60cm (2ft) high barriers made of clear polythene to exclude the low-flying female flies or cover the plants with a horticultural fleece, such as Enviromesh. It is essential to practice crop rotation with these methods, otherwise adult carrot flies may emerge within the protected crop from overwintered pupae in the soil.
Choose carrot cultivars that are less susceptible to carrot fly, such as 'Fly Away', 'Maestro', 'Resistafly' and 'Sytan'.
Chemical control
None of the insecticides currently available to amateur gardeners is approved for use against this pest.
Dieldrin
used to be used for the treatment of carrot fly, but is now one of the Persistent Organochlorine Compounds banned under the European Council Directive 79/117/EEC* and Regulation(EC) No 850/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
