It is unlikely that you will immediately get rid of wireworm, although there are many methods to combat this pest, as well as means against it. How to fight, because you need to do something! You do not want to lose a crop. To understand the mechanism of crop protection from wireworms, it is necessary to understand the way of his life. I'll try to explain how I understand it. When choosing the optimal option, one must proceed from the specific conditions of the pest. Some methods of fighting can even immediately help if the land on your site is not very contaminated by a wireworm. But adjust to a long struggle.
.- The beetle clicker and the wireworm are connected to each other
- The experience of fighting wireworms with the help of Prestige
- Folk remedies against wireworms
- Ways to combat the wireworm - the experience of gardening
The beetle clicker and the wireworm are connected to each other
Generally speaking, a wireworm is called a larva of a click beetle. The clicker itself is gray or dark gray, with dark longitudinal strips. The length of the body is 12-15 mm. They called him that because he, turning out to be lying on his back, turns over and makes a sound like a click. In the Ukrainian language, these beetles are called kovalyks, and their larvae are drosyans.
The female lays 60 to 200 eggs in March-June (in the Kuban) or May-July (the middle lane of Russia). A larva develops from the egg, a yellow-brown worm is a wireworm. In the garden where he settled, goodharvest of potatoes, carrots, beets, and sometimes any crop, it is impossible to get, so to protect it - it's faster to clear the site of it. How? This is our conversation with you.
.The larva, that is, the wireworm, lives in the ground, damages the stolons, roots, the base of the stems, especially the potato tubers. He gnaws, piercing them repeatedly. In other cultures, they drill holes into the underground part of the stem, they can even destroy the seeds before emergence. For example, in corn, the wire manages the seeds, making it impossible for them to germinate.
The wireworm has a yellowish or yellow-brown very solid cylindrical body 15-25 mm long, 1-2 mm in diameter. He has a flat head, three pairs of legs of the same size. Crush it will not work, you can only break your fingers. That is, the mechanical methods of destruction here will not help, and even collect a pest (like a Colorado beetle), just walking through the field will not succeed: it is impossible to see it on the surface of the earth.
Adult individuals are click beetles, they live no more than a year. The worm-larva can live 2-5 years, feeding on the roots of weeds, grass and other crops. Most of all, they bring harm in the 4-5th year of life. Larvae 1-2 years of life damage plants weakly, because they have a small size.
In spring, when the weather is finally established with plus temperatures, the wireworms gradually begin to rise closer to the surface of the earth to find food. This feature should be used.
The physical feature of the wireworm is that it migrates well in the vertical direction, and in the horizontal direction it is weak. So, if up and down it can move 1-2 m, then left-right - only 15-18 cm. Therefore, in the spring, a liquid dressing agent (for example, Prestige) can destroy only those individuals that fall directly into the etched potatoes. And if the pest rises upward, it turns out that it will be 20-25 cm from the tuber, then it does not try to poison - it will remain alive. This feature of the larva's lifestyle should also be used.
In the process of life, the wireman periodically, then rises to the surface, looking for food, then again goes underground. There can be several such waves. Usually there are two main waves of raising the pest closer to the surface of the earth for food: spring and late summer-early autumn (in the Kuban this is July-August).
If the soil on top is dry, the wireman goes to depth - it becomes less dangerous, but if the soil is wet, then it rises higher, thus causing a strong crop damage. The damage from the larvae increases in both spring and autumn. If you notice the wilted potato bushes among the healthy, then most likely, without a wireworm was not done. Immediately it is necessary to carry out any protective measures to save at least part of the crop.
Wandered through the pages of the Internet, I found out that the wireworms like both moist and acidic soils, thickened plantings, weeds of grass, sow, swine, as well as spurge, dodder, mocryca. I do not like the soil fertilized with nitrogen fertilizers. The acidity of the soil can be reduced by sowing beans - this deprives the larvae of a comfortable habitat. Do not forget about this feature, it can tell you how, what specific measures can be used.
.The experience of fighting wireworms with the help of Prestige
In 2011, I digested potatoes were damaged by a pest - this is about 15-20% of the crop. I had to do something, so I planted the Prestige tubers before planting in 2012. The instruction to the drug says that it protects the potato harvest from both the Colorado potato beetle and the wireworm.
I must say that Prestige "works" in seed tubers, potato stems up to 60 days. Until the end of this period, it is not recommended to eat potatoes. For the same reason, it is not recommended to cultivate the Prestige of early varieties of tubers.
How well protected Prestige the harvest from the Colorado pest was noticeable after the potatoes had ascended. As soon as the young leaves came out of the earth: near them a large number of dead adult individuals lay. After 60 days I dug out a young potato - there were no damaged tubers. But some time later, with weeding and hilling, I saw crawlers crawling to the surface of the earth. My fears were confirmed in the middle of July, then the potatoes were dug out in the Kuban for storage, the percentage of the damaged crop practically did not decrease. Therefore, Prestige will not help protect potatoes from the second wave of wireworm.
.That is, in the middle of summer the liquid protivovitel does not work anymore.
This raises the question of how, what plant protection products (CZR) can be used.
↑ back to content ↑Folk remedies against wireworms
In 2013, in each hole, along with a potato tuber, beans were planted: the beetle beetle does not like beans, leaves where there are none. But since I did not have many seeds of beans, I did not sow them in every hole, but about 30%. Potatoes went up, the tops grew quickly. But the crackers did not disappear.
I made traps for them: at the bottom of the cans I put a little mashed potato leaves. Banks pierced with their nails - made holes. The nutcracker will climb into the trap from above, and the worm-larva will crawl through the holes in the jar. The traps were placed on the potato patch in the morning. I tried to choose a day without rain. In the evening I examined the banks - I found a number of crackers and Colorado beetles. The wireworm was not there. I suppose that the pests gathered on the scent of leaves - they did not want to give up their usual food. After 2-3 days I inspected the new traps - the crackers practically did not detect, basically there were only Colorado beetles. In some cans, I put in pieces of sliced potatoes and carrots, in addition to the leaves. Here in these banks I found several wireworms. Not many, but there were.
.A little bit of it was in late May-June (the second wave). But I again put pots with bait all around the potato field and collected the click beetles that got there - there were a few yellow worms. That is, I came to the conclusion that banks with baits can be used, but it is quite labor-intensive.
This was the result of my struggle. Completely I did not release my garden from the wireman, but the damaged potatoes were much less than last year.
↑ back to content ↑Ways to combat the wireworm - the experience of gardening
But experienced potato breeders shared this experience of fighting the yellow pest.
- Peel the potatoes, string them on a stick, bury them to a depth of 5-6 cm. After 3-4 days, the tuber is to be excavated, and the wireworms attached to it should be destroyed, poured with boiling water or burned with kerosene.
- When planting potatoes, pour 5-10 g of finely divided eggshell into the wells, lightly moistened with sunflower oil. As soon as the wireworm tries such a treat - he almost immediately perishes. By the way, according to reviews, this method works well against the bear.
- Two weeks before planting potatoes, sow the swollen corn kernels: 1 square. m - 2-3 nests with 15 seeds each. As soon as the corn is poured, dig it out with the ground, put it on film or plywood, select the maggots and burn them. Below you can see a video about the results of the work of a trap from sprouted corn kernels:
- Add to the soil ammonium sulfate - 2 tbsp. l. on 1 square. m. This fertilizer not only destroys the wireworm, but also fertilizes the soil with nitrogen.
- On the oilcloth scatter a granular superphosphate with a thin layer. Moisten it with a water-acetone solution (80 ml of water + 200 ml of acetone) of any of the pesticides: acticle - 15 ml, decis extra - 4 ml, karate - 1 ml. Dry the moist superphosphate in the shade and scatter around the area (5 kg per 100 sq. M. m). Try to immediately dig out the site. You can also, by planting potatoes, throw a pinch of superphosphate treated in this way in each well.
- Carefully dig up and liming the soil. They pierce the grass, sow - they have a wireworm in their roots. In each hole put a handful of onion husk. Plant marigolds around the perimeter of the potato area, as well as between the rows.
- It is possible to completely defeat the wireworm with the help of a carnivorous nematode, a non-bacterium. It is a microscopic worm that is found in the soil "Protection". It is enough to make a pinch of this soil in each hole when planting. Even once it is enough - a nematode will eat 60-100% of larvae. This primer is safe for both humans and the environment.
- At one of the forums I read about this method: dig in the area of ordinary pine or fir needles - the bear will also leave.
- Wireworms like to collect under the heap of straw, tops or manure, so in the autumn it can all be expanded around the site, and as soon as frosts come and collect and burn. In the spring it is also possible to decompose the heaps, and after a while they burn. This procedure can be repeated in the summer more than once.
- This method will also help you to free the garden from click beetles. Beetles are very fond of sweet. Plaque on the surface of the earth, for example, a film, oilcloth. Pour it with sugar syrup. Of course, not only the click beetles, but also other "lovers" will fly to the smell of sweet. Nevertheless, after doing so several times, you can destroy many pests, click beetles including.
- Will help ciderates. Sow the infected field with mustard, buckwheat, alfalfa, clover. A yellow worm does not tolerate these plants. He will perish or leave your site.
This is all that I managed to figure out how to protect potatoes, how to get rid of wireworm.
