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The Colorado potato beetle is traditionally considered the main enemy of potato plantations. But if the damage from this pest of potatoes and its larvae on the leaves is visible to the naked eye, then the losses from the stay of the wireworm are found only after digging the crop.
The danger of a wireworm as a potato pest
If the site is infected with hard, up to 3 cm long larvae of the click beetle, about 60% of the tubers are riddled with complex passages of the potato pest. While the damaged potato is in the soil, the flesh around the hole is colonized by putrefactive bacteria, nematodes, and fungi. The wireworm does not shun juicy roots, as a result, even whole potatoes do not receive food, and the harvest is sharply reduced.
The area of click beetles is extremely extensive, therefore yellow larvae with surprisingly dense shells are found everywhere and readily eat not only potatoes, but also juicy roots of such cultures as, for example, wheatgrass and bluegrass.
Because of the abundance of succulent feed, potato plantations are extremely attractive to the larvae. At the same time, the pest actively acts on the beds throughout the growing season, starting from the germination of tubers and ending with the drying of the bushes. But no matter how hard the gardener tries, it is unlikely that he will completely get rid of the wireworm on the potato field. 
Ways to get rid of the wireworm on the potato field
You can only significantly reduce the number of these dangerous insects and with the help of special measures to protect the plants from the attack of pests. Moreover, the fight against the larvae of the click beetle can be carried out in several directions. These include:
- tillage and incorporation into it of substances that ensure the death of potato pests and prevent their reproduction;
- device of various traps and lures for wireworms and adult beetles;
- potato processing before planting with solutions of active substances;
- mechanical digging, loosening the soil on the site and other agricultural practices.
The effect of the drug "Prestige" when processing potatoes, according to the instructions, lasts up to 60 days. Already with the appearance of the first leaves above the garden bed, you can see how the Colorado beetles react to the chemical. Adults die quickly, but how to find out if the wire has died?
Here only the undermining of the bushes and the observation of plantings as they grow and bloom will help. It was found that the number of affected plants during the "Prestige" is sharply reduced, and the young tubers which have started, are healthy. But when the 60-day period expires, the pests of the potato again rush to planting.
- As the winter storage tubers are dug much later than two months later, gardeners cannot do without additional crop protection measures.
- But the early varieties of potatoes, ripening faster than 60 days, it is better not to pickle “Prestige”.
How in this case get rid of the wireworm on the potato field? What kind of plant protection products can be used to get rid of the wireworm.
Methods for getting rid of wireworm in potatoes
In most cases, the simplest farming practices become a major help:
- plowing the site in early spring, when the larvae and adult beetles are still mobile, easily become prey for birds or die in the sun;
- careful removal of weeds and their roots, becoming the habitat of the wireworm and the food of this pest of potatoes;
- summer loosening of the soil under the bushes of potatoes allows you to extract the laying of the click beetle eggs on the destructive sun for insects;
- autumn digging of the area shortly before the onset of sustained frost helps to extract insects into the air, where the wireworm dies from the cold.
During spring works at the site, fertilizers containing nitrogen and ammonia are introduced into the ground, which are extremely unpleasant for the wireworm. In addition, the pest uncomfortable on soils with low acidity. Experienced gardeners are advised to add several granules of superphosphate to the wells during planting.
Another effective technique that helps get rid of the wireworm in potatoes is the introduction of a special soil containing predatory nematodes under the tubers. For these microscopic worms, potato pests become a tasty prey, and for plants and humans such organisms are perfectly safe.
Safe ways to control the wireworm
To remove pests from the potato plot, various baits and traps are often used that are located around the perimeter of the plantations or are placed between the ridges.
- Juicy potato slices are strung on a string, and such garlands are added dropwise along the ridges to a depth of 5 to 15 cm. The lures change in two or three days.
- A few grains of corn or maize are planted every half meter across the site. When shoots appear, lush roots will surely attract pests.
- Adult beetles and larvae usually accumulate under straw, foliage or tops that can be located along the border of a potato field.
Using such bait, it is important to inspect them regularly and change them in case of accumulation of dangerous pests of potatoes. As a measure of repelling wireworms, you can use:
- watering the beds with infusions of a coltsfoot, dandelion, celandine or nettle;
- soaking tubers in the infusion of celandine before planting;
- onion peel, which is put in the wells when planting tubers;
- marigold around the perimeter of the site or between the rows;
- fresh pine or spruce needles dug along the ridges.
If the area allows, a properly organized crop rotation will help get rid of the wireworm on the potato field. Soil pests do not infect plants if they are planted in the first year. Therefore, the alternation of potatoes with unattractive for the wireworm plants, for example, legumes, spring rapeseed and buckwheat, will help not only to preserve the crop, but also to enrich the soil with useful substances.
After harvesting, it is helpful to sow mustard, alfalfa, and clover at the potato site. These crops for potato pests are completely edible, changing the diet will cause the death of insects or their departure from the affected area.
