Divisi
Teff shoot fly
Atherigona · Insect
Photo: Khan, Kakar & Kamran (2024) · CC BY 4.0
Teff shoot fly is a small grey fly, a little smaller than a common housefly, whose maggots attack teff only in its first few weeks. The adult lays tiny eggs on young seedling leaves; the maggot hatches, crawls down inside the leaf sheath and bores into the central growing shoot, cutting it. The killed central leaf — the deadheart — turns yellow, dries and pulls out easily while the outer leaves stay green. Hit seedlings either die or throw out a bush of weak, unproductive side-shoots. It bites hardest on late-planted, thin or slow-growing teff in warm weather.
Digvijaysinh Padhiyar · CC BY-SA 4.0 
Caroline Harding, MAF · CC BY 3.0 au
Why it matters
Teff shoot fly strikes your crop at its weakest moment — the tiny seedling — and a bad attack can wipe out up to half your teff (50%) before it ever forms a head. Once a maggot has bored into a seedling's heart and killed it, that plant is finished: no spray can bring back a dead central shoot. That is why this pest is beaten by stopping it early and growing a strong, fast stand, not by trying to rescue plants after the damage is done.
When to act
Act when about 10 percent of seedlings show deadheart or shoot-fly adults are active during the vulnerable seedling-to-tillering window.
This guidance is general, compiled from published agronomic references including FAO and CABI. Thresholds and timing shift with your crop, your variety and the season.
In much of the region a spray is simply called mushonga — medicine. But a chemical group you cannot name is one you cannot rotate, and a product you did not write down has no pre-harvest interval you can observe. Mushonga, and other farming words →
The full teff shoot fly field guide
- Identify it
- Scout for it
- Control it
15 field-guide sections in the app
The full guide to teff shoot fly — every symptom to check, how and when to walk your field looking for it, and the controls that actually work, ranked. Built into your crop plan, so you are told to look before it costs you a harvest.
Crops it affects
Frequently asked questions
How do I identify teff shoot fly?
The first and clearest sign is 'deadheart': on a young seedling the innermost central leaf turns yellow, then brown, dries out, and slides out easily when you pull it gently — while the outer leaves around it stay green. ('Deadheart' just means the growing heart of the shoot has been killed.) The little base you pull out is often soft, rotten and bad-smelling.
When should I take action against teff shoot fly?
Act when about 10 percent of seedlings show deadheart or shoot-fly adults are active during the vulnerable seedling-to-tillering window.
How do I control teff shoot fly?
Prevent it — grow a fast, strong stand (your best defence): plant early, before the warm-weather flies build up, and at the recommended higher seed rate so the crop comes up thick and races through the tender seedling stage. Use a firm, well-prepared, moist seedbed and enough nitrogen for quick, vigorous early growth. A dense, vigorous stand simply outgrows the fly, and the extra plants make up for any that are lost.
Which crops does teff shoot fly affect?
Among the crops covered here: Teff.
Catch it before it costs you a harvest
Divisi builds scouting into your crop plan — it tells you when to walk your field, what to look for at that stage, and what to do when you find it. Free for farmers, works offline.
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