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The wireworm is one of the most insidious pests, affecting potato tubers. Until recently, little was said about the fight against wireworms, paying special attention to such an enemy of potatoes as the Colorado potato beetle. This has led to the fact that the biology of the wireworm has been studied very superficially, and, therefore, the means of combating it are ineffective. At the same time, the harm from wireworm on potatoes may, if not exceed, then certainly equal the damage caused by the Colorado potato beetle, and its underground life makes its detection very problematic. But despite this, the fight against it must be carried out. Below we will talk about how to prevent wireworms on potatoes and how to prevent its appearance.
Who is the wireworm, and what harm can it cause?
At its core, a wireworm is not even an adult, but just a larva of a click beetle. The click beetle is a harmless insect that feeds on the leaves of cereal plants and does not cause much harm. Its dimensions are insignificant - the maximum length of its oblong body will be about 2 cm.The color of an adult beetle can be dark brown, brown or deep purple. You can notice them in your garden or vegetable garden from early spring to mid-August.
During this time, the female click beetle lays about 200 eggs, from which wireworm larvae, also called wireworms, subsequently emerge. They got their name due to their hard, shiny, wire-like body.
Unlike their parents, these voracious wireworm larvae can cause enormous damage to the garden. Before turning into click beetles, wireworms live in the ground for 5 years, making deep ornate passages in it and devouring everything in their path.
In the first year of their life, the larvae are almost harmless. They are very small in size, so they do not need much food. But from 2 to 4 years of life, wireworms become a real threat, especially for potatoes. By this time, they have already grown to an average of 2–3 cm in length and become like small worms with well-segmented bodies. Along with the length of their body, their color also changes: from light yellow to brown. Moreover, the older the wireworm larva, the harder its body. It will be quite difficult to crush it.
Wireworms are extremely voracious and omnivorous. For them it is absolutely not important what to eat, the main thing is to eat. Most often they attack potatoes, but they may not ignore other crops, such as:
- carrot;
- tomatoes;
- cabbage;
- beet;
- rye and others.
They feed on absolutely everything, from a planted seed or tuber to roots, shoots and even stems. Their life motto is to eat everything you can get your hands on. As a result of such active activity of the voracious larvae of the click beetle, a gardener can lose from 65% to 80% of the harvest annually. These larvae overwinter well in the soil, and with the arrival of spring they take on young plants with renewed vigor.
Signs of the presence of wireworms in potato beds
Potatoes are a favorite treat for wireworm larvae. They especially value the potato tubers themselves, but do not disdain the roots and tops. It is quite difficult to notice wireworms in potato crops, but there are still several signs that indicate its presence:
- Detection of single wilted potato bushes. The fact is that in the ground they move mainly vertically, going 1 - 2 meters into the soil. At the same time, they do not move further than 20 cm from the place where they feed on potato tubers. This feature of this pest allows it to eat only individual potato plants.
- You can find wireworm larvae by digging up potatoes early. Young potato tubers will have narrow holes through them and dark depressions on the skin through which the faces move.
- You can also notice wireworm larvae when digging or loosening a potato bed. In summer, the wireworm moves in the upper layers of the soil at a depth of 5 to 10 cm.
Important! If a wireworm is found on a potato, it can easily be confused with a beneficial ground beetle. A distinctive feature of the wireworm is the characteristic click that the pest makes when turning over.
Preventive measures against wireworms
As with other pests, avoiding the appearance of wireworm larvae on potatoes is much easier than fighting it.
Preventive control of wireworm larvae on potatoes includes a number of agrotechnical measures that contribute to the improvement of the entire area:
- Organization of crop rotation. Many gardeners mistakenly avoid crop rotation in their garden, considering it a waste of time and effort. In fact, crop rotation is very important both from the point of view of preventive control of diseases and pests, and from the point of view of increasing the quality and quantity of the crop. You can learn more about the rules of crop rotation from the video:
- Harvesting all root crops. When harvesting in the fall, it is very important to collect all the tubers of potatoes or other plants. In this case, the wireworm will be provided with a hungry winter, which not all individuals will be able to survive.
- Maintaining the soil on the site at a neutral acidity level. The wireworm loves high soil acidity, so reducing its level will not benefit it. Indicator plants will help determine the acidity of the soil. If horsetail, plantain or sorrel are actively growing on the site, then the soil has very high acidity and must be limed.
- Attracting birds and insects to the site that eat the click beetle and its larvae. Such birds include starlings, wagtails, thrushes, rooks and doves; among insects, garden ground beetles love to feast on the click beetle and its offspring. A birdhouse will help attract birds, but for ground beetles you need to create a shelter from small stones, sawdust or tree bark.
- Destruction weed. This is especially true for burdocks and wheatgrass - they are practically “ready homes” for wireworm larvae.
In addition to these preventive control measures, there are some crops whose planting repels wireworm larvae from potatoes:
- Dahlias - the wireworm cannot stand their smell, so it will not poke its nose into a potato bed surrounded by these beautiful flowers.
- Green manure - when rotting, they release essential oils that will repel wireworms. Of all the green manure plants, wireworm especially does not like mustard, rapeseed, buckwheat, rapeseed and sweet clover. They should be planted in a potato bed in the fall, after harvesting, or in the spring before planting. When the plants grow to a height of 10 cm, they must be mowed and embedded in the soil.
- Legumes - in addition to repelling wireworms, peas, beans and beans will enrich the soil with nitrogen, necessary for potatoes.
Methods to combat wireworms
You can fight wireworms on potatoes using folk remedies and chemicals. Of course, any chemical will accumulate in potato tubers, so it would be preferable to use biologically based drugs or folk recipes.
Folk recipes in the fight against wireworms
There is nothing safer for a person than treat potatoes before planting from wireworms using folk recipes. When fighting wireworms on potatoes, the following folk remedies and recipes are successfully used:
- Eggshells are perhaps the cheapest and most versatile means of all means of combating wireworms on potatoes. Wireworms simply cannot stand it. Crushed eggshells can be used to treat potato tubers before planting; they can be placed in a hole when planting potatoes or laid out around the perimeter of a potato bed.Egg shells from wireworm larvae on potatoes can be replaced with onion or garlic peels.
- Infusions of dandelion or nettle. To combat wireworms on potatoes, mix 500 grams of nettle tincture or 200 grams of dandelion tincture in 10 liters. The resulting infusion should be used to treat the holes before planting potatoes. Moreover, such treatment is carried out a week before planting potatoes every 2 days.
- Ammonium nitrate or ammonium sulfate. Both of these drugs are excellent for combating wireworms due to the ammonia they contain, which causes the larvae to migrate deeper into the ground, where they remain without food. Per 1 square meter you need to add from 20 to 30 grams.
- A solution of potassium permanganate is very effective in combating wireworm larvae. They can be used to water holes before planting potatoes and to treat already mature bushes. As a rule, no more than 2–4 grams are taken per 10 liters of water.
Egg shells from wireworm larvae on potatoes can be replaced with onion or garlic peels.With the help of folk remedies, you can not only fight wireworms on potatoes, but also catch them. These are one of the few pests that fall perfectly into all kinds of traps. In the fight against wireworm larvae on potatoes, a gardener can use the following baits:
- Old spoiled potatoes - to prepare a trap, old potato tubers should be soaked for a day in any insecticide and buried in different places in the garden. In order to then easily find all the potato traps, the burial site must be marked with something. After 2 days, potatoes with larvae inside must be dug up and burned.
- Pieces of potatoes or carrots - they must be placed in a glass jar with a volume of 0.5 liters and buried in the ground up to the neck.Not only wireworm larvae, but also adult click beetles will come to this treat. In order to no longer be able to get out of there, the neck must be covered with paper.
- Shoots of corn, barley, wheat or oats - in order to catch wireworms, you need to plant a small amount of these crops 2 weeks before planting potatoes. Before planting potatoes, these plants are dug up along with the wireworm and burned. For greater effectiveness, seeds can be treated with an insecticide before planting.
Chemical agents in the fight against wireworms
Chemicals can only be used when planting mid- and late-ripening potatoes. Early potato varieties will not have time to remove all the chemicals from their tubers, and the gardener will get it.
Most often, the following drugs are used to combat wireworm larvae on potatoes:
- Prestige;
- Taboo;
- Cruiser;
- Imidor;
- Commander.
In addition to these drugs, a homemade composition helps in the fight against wireworms on potatoes. To prepare it, you need to take 5 kg of superphosphate in granules and spread it in a thin layer on the film. After this, you need to prepare a solution for processing it. To do this, you can take Decis in a dosage of 0.4 ml, Karate - 1 ml, Actellik - 15 ml or Fastak - 2 ml. The drug selected from this list is added to a water-acetone solution prepared from 200 ml of acetone and 800 ml of water. The resulting solution should be sprayed with superphosphate spread on the film.After it dries, it should be scattered onto the potato beds. This amount is enough for 100 square meters.
Conclusion
In order for the fight against wireworm on potatoes to be successful, a systematic and integrated approach is needed. You can't just scatter eggshells everywhere or treat potatoes with chemicals. Any fight against pests such as wireworms should begin with caring for the area and keeping it clean.
