If, during digging up the soil on the site, you found a wireworm, then the first reaction: you have to start a fight. This is a big trouble! To fight with the wireworm was effective, to withdraw it from his site once and for all, one must have an idea of his biology. Outwardly it resembles a worm, but in fact it is a larva of a click beetle. The name "wireworm" larvae (worms) received for tough chitinous covers that really resemble pieces of wire.
.- Who are the click beetles and how do their larvae look?
- Effective ways to combat wireworms
In the world fauna, there are up to 1, 00 species from the family of beetles-click beetles. In the tropics there are giant representatives of these beetles up to 8 cm long. One type of South American beetle clicker is capable of glowing. Aborigines, planting several such beetles in a can, can do without electric lighting.
↑ back to content ↑Who are the click beetles and how do their larvae look?
We have the click beetles much more modest in size and in species diversity (about 20 species). All beetles are colored in brown and black tones. The most harmful species of plant species are the beetle-beetle.
.In nature, click beetles appear in the spring, along with the first to develop after the winter rest period by plants, somewhere in the middle-end of May. At this time, the click beetles actively eat, nibbling the edges of the leaves and the petals of flowers, mate. After mating, females lay small piles of eggs in the soil. After 3-4 weeks of eggs appear larvae - the same wireworms, which initially feed on small plant roots. Before becoming adult beetles, larvae live, develop 3-4 years. During this time, they molt 14 times, discarding the old, chitinous shell that has become cramped, reaching a length of about 35 mm.
Throughout life, wireworms migrate in the soil in search of suitable temperature and nutrition for life. In doing so, they cause significant damage to underground parts of plants - roots, tubers, rhizomes, bulbs. Are able to eat even seeds, if there is no other food. On cultivated soils, wireworms are harmed so much that gardeners and truck farmers occasionally drop their plots, unable to get rid of the pest.
The strongest of all are potatoes and carrots. Potato damage is particularly significant. When harvesting from infected areas, one can see the mass of damaged tubers, and the larvae sit in them, protruding halfway outward. I had to meet tubers with five, and then with eight wireworms at the same time. Such a pest-depleted potato can be sent for storage, but the hostess then suffers to clean it. But the damaged carrots should not be stored, it is not allowed for two months. Therefore, the issue of combating wireworm is very relevant for many truck farmers.
Ironically, the favorite "dish" wireworm - the roots of wheat grass and other cereals, so when digging the site, weeding you deprive the pest of his natural food. He is happy to switch to potatoes, other cultivated plants. In addition, leaving on the site decorative turfs, untreated scraps of soil, you create conditions for the reservation of the pest, from where it will again spread to the plantations.
↑ to the contents ↑.Effective ways to combat wireworms
Measures to combat the wireworm are very complex, but get rid of it, you can get it off the site.
The first, easiest way is to select it manually during the digging of the soil. This significantly reduces the degree of damage to cultivated plants in the current year. In general, any soil treatment reduces the number of wireworms, helps you get rid of it.
.The second way is more effective. It is based on the fact that after digging up the soil before sowing or planting, wireworms are deprived of food - this must be taken advantage of. Spread the bait around the site, burying them to a depth of 5-10 cm. As a bait, take chopped potatoes, zucchini or carrots. At 1 square meter, place 3-5 pieces of food for the pest. After 5-7 days dig out the bait, destroy the larvae gathered on it. If the area is very clogged, repeat the procedure.
Effective also preventive ways to combat wireworm:
- Firstly, weed control, especially with the creeping weed;
- secondly, the processing of a 1% solution of urea compost heaps, because they are the second place after the wheat grass for the wire. This will speed up the processes of trapping plant residues, deprive it of its nutrient medium.
In two or three years, carrying out the listed works, you can significantly reduce the number of pests on your site.
.What does a wirewoman like and like?
If you have a wireworm on the site, then in the soil you will find an insect at all stages of development - large, small larvae, pupae, beetles.
Digging soil will help, of course, but it is ineffective on heavily contaminated soils.
I propose a set of measures to combat the wireworm, checked personally:
- For two or three days before planting, plant on 20 cm long sticks of raw potatoes, carrots or beets, bury at your site to a depth of 1-2 cm, leaving the ends of sticks sticking out above the ground. On the day of planting, take the bait out of the earth, collect the wireworms from them, and bury them again. Repeat the event all summer.
- Take glass, 5 -liter jars (10 pieces for 1 weave), put on the bottom of a piece of raw potatoes, carrots or beets, dig along the neck in the shade. In such traps fall adult insects - beetles-click-beetles. Choose them every 2-3 days, if necessary changing the bait.
- In the autumn, spread a heap of straw or manure around the site. When the frosts come, gather up piles, burn them together with the insects gathered inside the heap.
- Include beans in the crop rotation (crop rotation) - the wireworm does not tolerate them, so they will leave the site.
- In extreme cases, you can use chemical drugs, for example, basidine, but strictly follow the instructions for their use.
This is a very difficult and difficult task - the fight against the wireworm. Write, please, in the comments, what measures, ways, means helped you to cope with this task. Negative experience is also important and interesting for gardeners.
