Delia antiqua, commonly known as the onion fly, is a cosmopolitan pest of crops. The larvae or maggots feed on onions, garlic, and other bulbous plants. The onion fly has an ash-grey body and resembles a housefly.

Understanding the Context

The male has a longitudinal stripe on the abdomen which is lacking in the female. The adult onion fly resembles a greyish housefly, with a narrower abdomen, longer legs, and overlapping wings when at rest. Keep an eye out for these flies in your garden, as they lay their eggs near the base of onion plants. Protect onions and related crops from onion fly damage with practical prevention tips.

Key Insights

As it turns out, we had a really bad infestation of onion root maggots (also known as an onion fly) in 2020. They devastated nearly our entire allium crop in 2020 and has us scared to bits for the future. This post is about how we successfully defeated the onion flies in our garden! The larvae of the onion fly can be especially dangerous for your vegetable patch. We show you how to protect your plants from the fly and how to fight it.

Final Thoughts

This article provides practical information about the onion fly โ€“ how to recognize it, where it occurs in North America, how to prevent infestations, and how to control or eliminate this pest from gardens, farms, and homes. Learn about onion fly, an agricultural pest that harms onions, leek, and garlic. Discover its signs, damages, and biological control with nematodes. Onion root maggot flies are rather delicate, hump-backed gray-brown flies, about 5-7 mm long. Onion, seedcorn and cabbage maggot flies are difficult to distinguish with the naked eye, but each will only be found on and near their appropriate crop family.