Leek moth?

Hi everyone, I'm fairly new here, just been trying to read a lot of what is being said on here trying to learn more about gardening, but now I'm facing a problem and thought I'd ask for help...

I planted some white shallots, garlic, spring onions in my garden for the first time this year, and everything has grown quite big but something is eating the leaves from the inside. There isn't a lot of damage, just patches where the leaves have turned sort of translucent and when I cut it open there are little white larvae / maggot type things inside (are these of leek moths?). As far as I can tell the damage is limited to the leaves of the spring onions and shallots so the few spring onions I have harvested, I binned the leaves where they are hollow and used just the bottom bits which looked undamaged because I didn't fancy eating the worms inside.

Now, I've read that as I planted my shallots in spring, they should be harvested in late August but I'm worried by then the bulbs will be eaten by these pests as well, should I just lift the whole lot and try to trim the affected leaves off? Would the bulbs still keep?

Any advice would be appreciated, because I'm a bit lost! I would hate to have to throw everything away...

Thanks,

Laura

 

Hi Laura & Welcome to Gardeners Corner.

Not sure if thats leek moths or onion fly. I get some damage on the leeks in the autumn but it goes when the frosts come & by spring the leeks have regrown.

 

Hello Ziggy,

Thanks for the welcome
Actually I'm not sure what exactly they are, when I first noticed them I was just mainly a bit freaked out. Yesterday I pulled up some shallots and investigated further and have taken a picture of what I found.
Onion fly or leek moth? And what to do about it?

Thanks,
Laura

 

Thanks for the advice. I guess I'll be pulling everything up this weekend then.
Are the bulbs still ok to eat if they don't look damaged?
I wonder what to do about the ornamental alliums in the same border, guess I'll be checking those for damage too...