Fighting a wireworm in the garden, the best methods and means

What does a wireworm look like and how is it dangerous?

These are inconspicuous insects. They are characterized by a spindle-shaped, oblong body, reaching 20 mm. Their color can be dark brown, deep purple or brown. Adult insects do not do much harm, since they feed on the leaves of cereals. But at the same time, they can actively reproduce. Their summer begins in spring and lasts until August. On average, a female can lay up to 200 eggs per season, from which wireworm larvae appear.

Besides the fact that beetles actively reproduce, there is another problem. Wireworms are long-lived. In the soil, pests can be present for 4-5 years under favorable conditions and a sufficient amount of food. Finding them is difficult, since insects tend to make winding passages to protect themselves from the threat.

At first, the larvae do not pose a particular danger to crops, due to their small size and relatively moderate appetite. But from 2-4 years of age they look like strong worms 20-30 mm long. They can be distinguished by their segmented solid body (it is so strong that it cannot be crushed). The color of the worms varies from light yellow to intense brown.

Wireworm appearance.

It is necessary to fight the wireworm because the pest is gluttonous and almost omnivorous. Any crops are suitable for him - carrots, onions, tomatoes, cabbage, potatoes, beets. And also corn, wheat, rye. It doesn't matter to him at what stage of development the plant itself is, since he feeds on everything he can get to. It can be not only tubers, but also seeds, roots and shoots.

The harvest can be lost by 65-80%, and since wireworms are long-livers, the problem will remain in the next season (the larvae hibernate in the soil, and in the spring the situation repeats).

Agrotechnics guarding the garden

In the fall, it's time to sow green manures, which will enrich the land with nitrogen and phosphorus and scare off the pest.

Table: green manure versus wireworm

Mechanical techniques

At the end of the season, the site is carefully removed from plant residues both on the surface of the soil and in the ground. This is especially true of potatoes the size of peas, wireworms rush to it like moths to a light. Waste is incinerated off-site if used for traps.

The land is cleared of weeds - milkweed, burdocks, sow thistle, woodlice, wheatgrass. Plants do not tear, but undermine, choosing the roots where the wireworm lives.

The roots of the wheatgrass are like the jungle, where the wireworm lives with pleasure.

Until the larvae lay down "at the bottom" for the winter, on the eve of frost, the site is dug up on the bayonet of a shovel, turning over clods of earth.If there are pests, then 70-90% of them are guaranteed to disappear. During routine work in the garden and garden: hilling, planting and transplanting, the wireworm is chosen by hand, fortunately, its color is striking.

The bright glossy chitinous sheath of the wireworm is visible to the naked eye even against a variegated background

How to spot a wireworm in an area

To get rid of the wireworm in the garden, you need to understand which crops he loves more than others, despite his omnivorous nature. When given a choice, pests prefer potatoes. Therefore, it is advisable to start checking the site with it.

You can understand that a wireworm has wound up in the garden by the following signs:

1. On freshly dug tubers there are narrow through holes, on the peel there are dark indentations.
2. Separate wilted plants appear among healthy bushes. Insect larvae can migrate in the vertical direction, breaking through passages by 1-2 m, but horizontally they move poorly. They do not go far from the feeding place, maximum by 15-20 cm. Therefore, wireworms rarely damage whole beds, mainly only individual plants.

Sometimes insects can be seen in the upper layers of the soil at a depth of 5-10 cm or on weeds that have been pulled out.

Adult click beetles resemble ground beetles in appearance, but differ from them in a characteristic clicking sound, which they emit when they roll over from back to belly.

Damage by wireworm larva.

Pest prevention

Subject to the rules of agricultural crops and crop rotation, summer residents rarely encounter any pests. Timely loosening of the soil, as well as weeding and cleaning of weeds are the basis of a clean vegetable garden. Wireworm larvae often live in the roots of wheatgrass and chicken millet; they are removed from the beds in the first place. Sometimes even mulch can harm, it is better to remove it, otherwise the larvae will move from dry places into wet grass.

When choosing siderates, pay attention to lupine, mustard, phacelia and alfalfa, these plants create an uncomfortable environment for the wireworm in the soil. Crop rotation involves the alternation of vegetables with legumes, which it is desirable to plant in the aisles, they are extremely unpleasant for the wireworm.

Try not to use chemicals when a small amount of the pest appears, in which case it can be easily dealt with by other methods. With a massive defeat of plants, you need to be patient and use whole complexes of control methods. Do not be lazy, write down the most successful advice in your opinion and draw up an action plan. If everything is done correctly and in a timely manner, you can forever forget about such a pest as a wireworm.

Control methods

There are various ways to deal with wireworms. Most experts argue that chemicals should be used last if all other measures have failed.

Compliance with agricultural techniques

Compliance with the rules of agricultural technology on the site increases the likelihood that it will be possible to say goodbye to the wireworm forever. To do this, you need to start weed control, because, in addition to potatoes, pests like leeks. And even if the land is treated with high quality, but a weed remains in the aisles, the harvest will be under threat.

Weeding is not enough to get rid of weeds. Moreover, wheatgrass has long filamentous roots, which are difficult to cope with. Unfavorable living conditions should be created for weeds. For example, in late autumn, and in some regions and at the end of October, before the onset of stable frosts, you need to carefully dig up the site in order to remove even the smallest roots of wheatgrass from the soil. The larvae will find themselves on the surface of the soil with them and die from the cold.

In case of particularly severe weed infestation, it is recommended to use special preparations - herbicides, but only all preventive measures are carried out before the emergence of useful crops. Otherwise, chemical exposure will negatively affect their crops.

Digging the site in the fall will reduce the risk of wireworms appearing.

The main measures in the fight against wireworms are adherence to the rules of soil cultivation, including deep plowing, cultivation, loosening the row spacings and regular weeding.

Chemicals

To get rid of the wireworm, chemical methods are used only in extreme cases. Some of the more popular products include:

1. "Provotox" is a granular preparation based on diazinon, which has low toxicity (compared to the products of previous generations). This is an insecticide, the action of which is aimed solely at destroying the wireworm; it will not affect beneficial earthworms in any way.
2. "Force" is an insecticide that is placed in the soil when planting potatoes or just in front of it. The consumption of the drug is 15 kg per hectare.
3. "Prestige" - one of the most expensive, but also the most effective means to combat not only this pest, but also the Colorado potato beetle. Manufactured in Germany. It is produced in the form of a highly concentrated liquid, which is diluted with water before use. Potato tubers are processed before planting, but can only be used for medium-late and late varieties of this culture. The drug is highly toxic, so that in early varieties, the poison may not have time to be removed from the tubers, which threatens with poisoning.

All of these funds are used according to the dosage indicated by the manufacturer. A mixture of granular superphosphate and drugs such as Actellik, Karate, Decis or Fastak can also be used. Superphosphate is sprayed in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions and allowed to dry. Then fertilizer is applied in a standard way.

Minerals

To get rid of the wireworm in the country, you need to use mineral fertilizers, for example, "Superphosphate", which is previously sprayed with an insecticide.

The use of ammonium nitrate or ammonium sulfate, that is, agents containing ammonia, does not so much allow insects to be removed as creates unfavorable conditions for their development. The larvae are forced to dig deeper into the ground in order to escape. Enough 20-30 g of such substances per 1 m².

Creating traps

Experts recommend making traps to physically destroy the wireworm:

1. Take old potatoes, soak them in any of the available insecticides for a day, and then bury them in the ground in the most problematic areas and mark the places with pegs. After 2 days, you can dig out the potatoes - wireworms will crawl into them. These tubers, together with the larvae, should be destroyed.
2. Put slices of carrots in a glass container (up to 0.5 l) and bury them in the ground so that the neck remains at ground level. Both larvae and adults fall into such a trap. After a while, the containers can be removed.
3. You can string chunks of potatoes or beets onto a wire to create a kind of barbecue. In the spring, when planting vegetables, it is buried along the garden bed at a depth of 10 cm. In a few days, when the larvae gather there, they will become a treat for the birds.

Most traps are designed for wireworms. But it is worth fighting with adults as well. They tend to hide during the daytime in shady places with high humidity. Beetles can be lured with heaps of grass, which then need to be burned. For preventive purposes, this procedure is repeated in the fall, only the grass is left to lie until the cold weather.

Folk remedies

Any folk remedies are biological products that make it possible to do without the use of toxic agricultural chemicals. For example, ground eggshells have worked well. In addition to affordability and low cost, it offers advantages such as versatility, high efficiency, and ease of use. It is necessary to scatter the ground eggshells over the territory of the site (several times during the season), and the wireworm will bypass the planting side.

A time-honored recommendation is to use nettle or dandelion infusions. They can be prepared on their own based on dry plant materials. For potato holes, use 500 g of nettle tincture per bucket of water or 200 g of dandelion tincture for the same amount of liquid. The processing of the holes should be carried out every 2-3 days during the week before planting.

Some gardeners recommend pickling the soil with a potassium permanganate solution. It should be weak - 2-3 g of potassium permanganate per 10 liters of water. This solution has a pale pink tint. You can add no more than a glass of such a solution to 1 hole.

Feedback and advice from readers

Please send your own impressions and tips for dealing with the pest in the comments to the article.

2-3 days before planting potatoes, I spray the soil with Dursban at the rate of 5 liters of the drug per hectare in 800 liters of water, then I dig it with a cultivator. A good wireworm remedy is pyrinex. The problem is that you can mix the preparation with the soil before planting. But after landing, I do not know the remedy for getting rid of the reptile.

I pickle seed potatoes with Prestige. Soak the tubers in the solution in a large container before planting. I don't remember when I had wireworms at the site. Of course, I also spray with pyrinex, and recently with dursban, but this is for prevention on leased land.

I have been fighting the wireworm for several years. My plot is too small and the potatoes need to be planted somewhere, so there is no choice. I have used probably every means and method possible and Pyrinex / Dursban have been the most effective. With them, you can clean the area by 90% in the first year, but this requires the use of a product by mixing it with the soil. Application described on the label, i.e. spraying the soil and subsequent digging is effective by 30-40%. The evaporation of the drug is so great that the effectiveness is sharply reduced. It is better to carry out processing at night, the larvae come out closer to the soil surface.

I grow organic potatoes. I plant mustard to fight wireworm. I sow buckwheat on the site 2 years before the planned potato cultivation.

Only planting mustard on green manure helps. Crop rotation and agricultural technology are the main things. Systemically.

I use limestone and dolomite chips. It is expensive, but spoiled potatoes are even more expensive. My wireworm destroyed half of the tomato seedlings. I put bait from pieces of potatoes. The rest was finished off by Antichrusch, then by Aktara.

If a wireworm is wound up, it is impossible to get rid of it right away, you will have to fight for 2-3 years. First of all, plowing in the fall before the frosts in October is important to freeze the larvae and digging in the spring so that the eggs dry up in the sun. We need to fight the weeds! It is important to get rid of the wheatgrass, the wireworm lives on its roots. Glyphosate treatment is just that! You can use drugs with contact action, combined. Actress alone, the prestige of the wireworm, cannot be brought out! It is necessary to soak the seed, the wireworm will gnaw the poisoned tubers and die. By the time of digging the harvest, young tubers will already be clean from the drug - you can eat. Read the instructions, everything is written there - the terms and procedure for processing. The fight will take a couple of years. For this period, you should forget about young potatoes.

The wireworm is a ground-dwelling click beetle larva that prefers potatoes, carrots, and other root vegetables. The insect also feeds on shoots of sunflowers, grapes and other plants. It is easiest to find a wireworm in the fall: while digging the soil or by eating eaten root crops.

Wireworm Preventive Measures

As in medicine, prevention of infection is often more effective than treatment methods. Moreover, it often involves more gentle methods of struggle.

For example, there is a biological method available. It is necessary to sow the area most affected by pests with such agricultural crops that are slightly damaged by the wireworm. This will create unfavorable conditions for its development, and gradually the number will decrease. Then the pests will disappear altogether. In the future, this situation will be easy to maintain. Especially if you follow the rules of agricultural technology - regularly loosen the ground, then the larvae of beetles will become prey for birds and ground beetles.

The liming of acidic soils also creates unfavorable conditions for the development of insects. To do this, digging up the earth is carried out using chalk, lime or ash. It is allowed to use dolomite flour every few years. Another 1 preventive measure is the early sowing of useful crops, but only in those regions where climatic conditions permit.

Liming the soil.

Some experts suggest, for prophylactic purposes, when planting potatoes, immediately placing insecticides such as Barguzin (15 g / m²) or Diazinon (30 g / m²) in the holes. But such processing is done only if the likelihood of infection is high. In other situations, it is better to use more gentle methods, since hobby for agricultural chemistry can negatively affect health.

"Chemistry" against the wireworm

Usually, chemicals are used when the wireworm population is very high. For autumn tillage before the onset of frost, use:

• Provotox - granules are scattered over the surface of the ground in cool weather, lightly covered with a rake. The drug is toxic to the wireworm and the bear at the same time. The package (40 g) is designed for 10 m 2.
• Bazudin is a similar drug. Consumption: packaging (30 g) for 20 m 2.
• Potassium chloride is the most gentle preparation, it is preferable for sandy and peaty soils with potassium deficiency. Chlorine will "work" against the wireworm, which will be washed out by rain and melt water until spring. Consumption: 10 g per 1 m 2.

Prevention of wireworm in the garden

In order not only to remove the wireworm from the garden, but also to prevent its repopulation, it is worth adhering to simple rules. Otherwise, it will reappear after a while.

Basic preventive measures:

1. Burn off plant residues at the end of the season.
2. Regularly remove weeds, especially wheatgrass, sow thistle, cereals.
3. Avoid thickening plantings.
4. Loosen the soil at the base after each watering and rain.
5. When digging up a garden, destroy the larvae found.
6. Lay out heaps of rotted hay or straw in the fall after harvesting, and burn them with the arrival of frost.

Tips from experienced gardeners

It is not easy to get the wireworm out on the site, but it is important to tune in to a serious struggle, since only in this case can you count on a positive result.

Effective methods of struggle, according to experienced gardeners:

1. Between the rows of potatoes, it is worth planting a salad, which the wireworm loves so much. As soon as it grows up, it should be dug up with the larvae and destroyed.
2. Cut out thin wooden sticks 20-25 cm long and sharpen them on one side. String on them slices of raw potatoes, and then deepen into the soil, but so that they are slightly visible. After 2-3 days, dig the traps and destroy the wireworm larvae. Repeat until complete destruction.
3. Before planting tubers and bulbs, sprinkle 5 kg of sawdust on a film and spray them thoroughly with any chemical preparation. After drying, put a pinch of the prepared product in each hole.
4. Grind the leaves of celandine, nettle, coltsfoot and dandelion in a ratio of 1: 5: 2: 2. Pour the green mass with water (10 l). Insist the remedy for three days. Water the garden with the prepared solution 2-3 times at intervals of one week.

Sow siderata from wireworm

Siderata not only increase soil fertility, but also reduce its acidity, which is extremely negatively perceived by wireworms. In addition, plants secrete substances that repel pests, and not only wireworms. Plus, these are natural fertilizers, which is also important.

What green manures are most effective against larvae:

• oil radish;
• phacelia;
• alfalfa;
• rape;
• buckwheat;
• different members of the legume family;
• rape.

The priority is the agrotechnical method of protection against pests

Now we will thoroughly deal with the most effective and highly praised agrotechnical method for getting rid of the wireworm.

In personal subsidiary farms, where the use of chemical means of protection is undesirable, timely and thorough preparation of the soil for sowing vegetables comes to the fore.

Click beetles and their larvae prefer to settle on clayey acidified soils. The presence of neglected places with thickets of perennial wheatgrass, sow thistle, and bindweed on the site contributes to the reproduction of the wireworm. In such places, they feel very at ease, and since spring they migrate to our vegetable beds. That is why, in neglected and new areas, the number of pests is usually very high. And in areas where high agricultural technology is used and the soil is loose, a little.

Comprehensive soil preparation for planting (in autumn and spring), its regular loosening during the growing season, allows you to destroy a large number of eggs and larvae. Once on the surface of the soil in the spring and early summer, when the eggs are in full swing, they die under the sun's rays. That is why, if you have not even sown anything in your beds, during this period you need to loosen the soil to destroy the clutches of the click beetle.

In addition, it is necessary to collect all the larvae and beetles and destroy them by pouring boiling water over them or place them in a container with kerosene. They help us in the fight against the ubiquitous pest during spring digging of the soil - birds that willingly eat the larvae and beetles that are on the surface.

When digging and loosening the soil, close attention should be paid to removing weeds from the site, and especially the roots of wheatgrass, which is considered the main natural food of the click beetle. Therefore, this pest is found everywhere, and not only in our areas.

To increase the effectiveness of the fight against the wireworm, it is better to carry out the autumn digging of the soil at a later date, when the air temperature drops significantly. A large number of beetles and larvae, once in the upper soil layer, die at low temperatures.

To significantly reduce the amount of wheatgrass, sow thistle, bindweed on the site, and, consequently, the click beetle, will help regular measures to reduce the acidity of the soil (liming the soil in the fall and the introduction of ash in the spring).

Sowing is possible in places of strong accumulation of legume larvae, which scare off click beetles. It is better, of course, to correctly plan the crop rotation and place the crops of root vegetable crops after beans, peas, beans.

It is possible to use leguminous crops to destroy pests by planting strips of beans annually around the perimeter of the site, and when growing potatoes, sowing beans on potato plantations would be an excellent solution.The smell of legumes scares away the click beetle and he will not make new clutches of eggs next to them.

The pest we are considering has natural enemies that summer residents should know well - these are ground beetles (black beetles that live in the soil), feeding on eggs and the larvae of the pests themselves.

Carrying out the recommended preventive measures and purposeful work to reduce the number of wireworms will allow you to completely get rid of or significantly reduce the number of this dangerous pest in several summer seasons.

Lures and traps

Using baits is a troublesome business that requires constant attention, but they bring a good effect. Especially when it comes to small areas - here you can get rid of 20 to 80% of the wireworm population with the help of baits, according to the reviews of farmers.

Consider the various types of baits and traps for the pest - all of them are based on its food addictions or the desire for damp, unlit places, and in cold weather - for warmth.

• In the fall, after harvesting, it is advisable to leave as many heaps of tops and weeds on the site as possible. You can specially bring straw, manure. Larvae gather under such shelters. Before the onset of frost, all these heaps must be collected and burned along with the insects.

  

  It makes sense to send some of the waste from the garden not to compost, but to the device of traps for the wireworm.

• Similar events are held in the spring. Dig small depressions with a flat bottom, put bunches of the same straw, rotted grass, and manure there. Can be covered with foil or material at hand. In search of warmth, larvae gather there. After three to five days, the contents of the pits must be collected and burned.
• In late spring, a week or two before planting potatoes, they practice this method. Seeds of corn, barley, oats, and wheat are soaked. Every other day, they are sown in the soil in the form of nests, placing them about half a meter across the site. Several seeds are placed in each nest. Swollen grains attract parasites. When shoots appear, the plants are pulled out or dug up along with the wireworm. Such bait crops can be repeated throughout the season - the wireworm will prefer sprouting grain to potatoes. You can place them in strips across several rows of potatoes. It is also advised to soak the seeds in preparations of the Decis type - some of the larvae will die when eaten.

What plants are affected by the pest in the country?

The gluttony of the wireworm is obvious, what he just does not eat. These are cereals, melons and vegetables, as well as some ornamental plants. Swollen seeds, seedlings, young shoots and tender stems can be a delicacy. Even the roots of fruit trees get it.

The larvae show particular interest in such plants:

• potatoes;
• corn;
• carrot;
• sunflower;
• salad;
• alfalfa;
• tobacco;
• melon;
• watermelon, etc.

Wireworm in potatoes
The activity of the larvae depends on the weather conditions. In dry hot weather, in search of moisture, they intensively begin to gnaw potato tubers. The relative inertness of parasites is noted during the rainy season.

Distinctive features of an insect

Wireworm is an insect that resembles a worm in its appearance. Its length varies from 1 cm to 4, 5. There are three pairs of legs on the body of a brown shade. The dense shell, consisting of a chitinous shell, distinguishes it from other underground pests. It is not an independent species of the insect order, it is the larva of the click beetle.

The transformation into an adult is very long - from 2 to 5 years. During this period, parasites wreak havoc on crops.destroying plant roots. Wireworms hibernate in the ground, sinking deep into its layers. In severe frosts, the larvae go into the depth of the soil up to half a meter, which protects them from freezing.

Clickers appear in April, when the daytime temperature reaches ten degrees.In the first days of May, they lay eggs directly in the ground, preferring the area under the bushes, lumps. After twenty days, new larvae appear, the body of which in the first year of life is from 5 to 7 mm.

Chemicals for the destruction of wireworm

And, finally, about the chemical methods of fighting beetle larvae. Well-recommended drugs for the fight against most soil pests: Bazudin (granules), Nemabakt (water suspension), Pochin (granules), Provotox, Tabu, Zemlin. Chemical protective equipment should be used strictly according to the instructions.

Spring application for 1 sq. m 20-25 g of ammonium nitrogen fertilizers in liquid form (ammonium sulfate or ammonium nitrate). The solution is introduced into the grooves made and immediately sprinkled with soil so that the ammonia does not evaporate. Such feeding is detrimental to nearby pests and improves the supply of nutrients to plants.

It is detrimental for the wireworm to introduce sawdust into the soil before planting potatoes, previously treated with Aktellik, Decis, Karate preparations. To do this, 5 liters of sawdust (enough for 1 hundred square meters) is scattered in a thin layer on a film. A water-acetone solution is prepared (for 1 liter of solution, 0.8 liters of water, 0.2 liters of acetone, 1 ml of Karate are needed). Karate can be replaced with another insecticidal preparation. Sawdust is sprayed with a solution, dried in the shade and, when planting potatoes, add 1 teaspoon per hole.