Onion fly

Do onion flies also attack garlic.
I found a small maggot on one of my garlic plants that eas lying flat .
Some of the bulbs are swelling to what looks to be the right size . Should I start to lift them now?
The leaves have started to die back but did have an attack of rust .
Thanks john

Yes, onoin fly also attacks garlic and leeks.

Onion fly is often blamed for damage done by bean seed fly maggots which are more common and the damage is identical.

Whenever you lift them there is a risk that maggots will have burrowed into the bulbs and they may not keep as the damage may allow rotting bacteria/fungus to invade the bulbs.

The following give information on onion fly and bean seed fly.

http://www.which.co.uk/documents/pdf/onion-fly-153657.pdf

http://www.which.co.uk/documents/pdf/bean-seed-flies-151468.pdf

ah thats what i thought - yes it is the right time to lift over-wintering onions, but due to the being overwintering onions they wont store for very long, so i would pull the onions that have bent over brown leaves and freeze them, the ones with yellow droopy leaves i would pull and hang them up in the shed, garage etc (they will last a few weeks there, and i would leave the ones that have green foiliage in the ground, until they have gone yellow etc (then hang those up aswell.

or just freeze the lot