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The wireworm is one of the most insidious pestsaffecting potato tubers. Until recently, little was said about the fight against the wireworm, paying special attention to such an enemy of the potato as the Colorado potato beetle. This 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 harm from the Colorado potato beetle, and underground life makes its detection very problematic. But despite this, the fight against him must be carried out. Below we will tell you about wireworms on potatoes and how to prevent their appearance.
Who is a wireworm and what harm can he do
At its core, the wireworm is not even an adult, but only the 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 size is 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 garden from early spring to mid-August.
During this time, the female click beetle lays about 200 eggs, from which the wireworm larvae, also called wireworms, subsequently appear. They got their name from a tough, shiny wire-like body.
Unlike their parents, these voracious wireworm larvae can cause tremendous damage to the garden. Before turning into a click beetle, wireworms live in the ground for as much as 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 a lot of food. But from 2 to 4 years of age, 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. Together with the length of their body, their color also changes: from light yellow to brown. Moreover, the older the wireworm larva is, the harder its body is. 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 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 everything that you can get to. As a result of such vigorous activity of the voracious larvae of the click beetle, the gardener can lose from 65% to 80% of the harvest annually. These larvae winter well in the soil, and with the arrival of spring, they are taken for young plants with renewed vigor.
Signs of a wireworm in potato beds
Potatoes for wireworm larvae are a favorite delicacy. They especially appreciate the potato tubers themselves, but they do not shun the roots and tops.It is quite difficult to spot the wireworm on 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 deeper into the soil by 1 - 2 meters. At the same time, they do not move further from the place of their feeding with potato tubers by more than 20 cm. Such a feature of this pest allows it to eat only individual potato plants.
- You can find wireworm larvae with early digging of potatoes. Young potato tubers will have through narrow holes and dark depressions on the skin through which the larvae move.
- You can also notice wireworm larvae when digging or loosening a potato bed. In the 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 useful ground beetle. A distinctive feature of the wireworm is the characteristic click produced by the pest when turned over.
Wireworm preventive measures
As with other pests, avoiding wireworm larvae on potatoes is much easier than fighting them.
Preventive control of wireworm larvae on potatoes includes a number of agrotechnical measures that contribute to the improvement of the entire site:
- 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 improving the quality and quantity of the crop. You can learn more about the rules of crop rotation from the video:
- Harvesting of all root crops. When harvesting in autumn, 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 wintering, which not all individuals will be able to survive.
- Maintaining the soil on the site at a neutral acidity level. The wireworm is very fond of the high acidity of the soil, so lowering its level will not benefit him. 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 a very high acidity and must be limed.
- Attracting birds and insects to the site that eat the click beetle and its larvae. These birds include starlings, wagtails, blackbirds, rooks and turtle doves; among insects, garden ground beetles like to feast on the click beetle and its offspring. A birdhouse will help to attract birds, but for ground beetles it is necessary to create a shelter from small stones, sawdust or tree bark.
- Destruction weeds... This is especially true for burdocks and wheatgrass - they are practically “ready-made houses” for wireworm larvae.
In addition to these preventive measures, there are some crops, the planting of which scares the wireworm larvae from potatoes:
- Dahlias - wireworms cannot stand their smell, so they do not stick their heads on a potato garden surrounded by these beautiful flowers.
- Siderata - when rotting, they release essential oils that will scare away the wireworm. Of all the green manure plants, the wireworm does not particularly like mustard, rapeseed, buckwheat, rape and sweet clover. They should be planted on 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 scaring away the wireworm, peas, beans and beans will enrich the soil with the nitrogen necessary for potatoes.
Wireworm control methods
You can fight wireworms on potatoes with folk remedies and chemicals. Of course, any chemistry will accumulate in the potato tubers, so it will be preferable to use drugs on a biological basis or folk recipes.
Folk recipes in the fight against wireworm
There is nothing safer for a person than process potatoes before planting from the wireworm with the help of folk recipes. When fighting wireworms on potatoes, the following folk remedies and recipes are successfully used:
- Eggshells are perhaps the cheapest and most versatile remedy of all the means of fighting wireworms on potatoes. Wireworms simply cannot stand it. Crushed eggshells can be used to process potato tubers before planting, they can be placed in the hole when planting potatoes or laid out around the perimeter of the potato garden.Eggshells from wireworm larvae on potatoes can be replaced with onion or garlic husks.
- Dandelion or nettle infusions. To combat wireworm on potatoes, stir in 10 liters of 500 grams of nettle tincture or 200 grams of dandelion tincture. The resulting infusion must be processed before planting potatoes. Moreover, such processing is carried out a week before planting the potatoes every 2 days.
- Ammonium nitrate or ammonium sulfate. Both of these drugs are excellent for controlling wireworms due to the ammonia contained in their composition, which causes the larvae to migrate deeper into the ground, where they are left without food. For 1 square meter, it is necessary to make from 20 to 30 grams.
- Potassium permanganate solution is very effective against wireworm larvae. They can spill holes before planting potatoes and process already mature bushes. As a rule, no more than 2 - 4 grams is taken for 10 liters of water.
Eggshells from wireworm larvae on potatoes can be replaced with onion or garlic husks.With the help of folk remedies, you can not only fight the wireworm on potatoes, but also catch it. These are one of the few pests that perfectly fall for all kinds of traps. In the fight against wireworm larvae on potatoes, the gardener can use the following baits:
- Old spoiled potatoes - to prepare a trap, old potato tubers must be soaked for a day in any insecticide and bury in different parts of the garden. In order to then easily find all the potato traps, the place of burial must be marked with something. After 2 days, the potatoes with the larvae inside must be dug up and burned.
- Pieces of potatoes or carrots - they must be placed in a 0.5 liter glass jar and buried in the ground up to the neck. Not only wireworm larvae will come to such a treat, but also adult click beetles. In order to get out of there they could no longer, the neck must be covered with paper.
- Seedlings of corn, barley, wheat or oats - in order to catch a wireworm, a small amount of these crops must be planted on them 2 weeks before planting potatoes. Before planting potatoes, these plants are dug up with the wireworm and burned. For greater efficiency, the seeds can be treated with an insecticide before planting.
Chemicals in the fight against wireworm
Chemicals can only be used when planting mid- and late-ripening potatoes. Early potato varieties will not have time to remove all the chemistry 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 wireworm on potatoes. To prepare it, you need to take 5 kg of superphosphate in granules and scatter it in a thin layer on a film. After that, 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. A drug selected from this list is added to an aqueous acetone solution prepared from 200 ml of acetone and 800 ml of water.The resulting solution must be sprayed with superphosphate decomposed on the film. After it dries, it should be scattered over 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 sprinkle eggshells everywhere or pickle potatoes with chemicals. Any pest control such as wireworms should begin with caring for the site and keeping it clean.
