[vineweevil1]

My late sown peas haven't appeared yet but a man on my plot (has been on the allotment for 20 years) was telling me that I must spray the pea flowers with Bug clear or else I will have maggots in my pea pods.

Do I take it that he knows what he is talking about after 20 years or do you think he has got stuck in a rut after having an incident in previous years?

[cawdor2001]

he is talking about pea moth whose larvae do indeed eat the peas in the pods, but only if the adults lay the eggs, you can cover the peas with fine mesh if you are concerned, saves spraying em.


Cawdor

[DD.]

If you don't take some sort of precaution, organic or otherwise you are quite likely to have this problem, ableit in a small proportion of the peas.

Your mate is not talking about a one off incident.

[Aidy]

Over the years I have had pea moth, and I am expecting them to arrive this year too  :roll:  they dont seem to be as bad as carrot, cabbage root or onion fly, yes a few pods here and there have gone but not the entire crop.

[Yorkie]

Have you checked that Bug Clear is still legal to use, and safe on vegetables?

I don't have any info either way - just worth checking, as some of the sprays traditionally used are no longer permitted  

[DD.]

Bug Clear is widely available & legal.

It's up to you whether you use it or not!

[gobs]

Either he is obsessed or it is a big problem locally, you get this in summer peas, early sown ones completely escape it.

But as Aidy says, even in summer ones the damage is tolerable, here too anyway. What has been started still has most of peas untouched, usually in a pod.

As DD says, prepare and net them, just in case you are very infested with them there.