Garden pests make you think about the safety of the crop, and, in particular, how to deal with wireworm on potatoes. Habitual methods are unlikely to be effective, chemical agents are not safe, but several different methods used at the same time will help achieve the best results.
What does a pest look like?
An elongated rigid body, resembling a wire, divided into segments, was the reason for the second name of the click beetle. In fact, it damages a wide variety of root crops, not just potato tubers. And his favorite is wheatgrass.
This pest is more serious than the Colorado potato beetle. Before you deal with the wireworm on potatoes, you should make sure that it is he who spoils the crop. From thiswill depend on the measures to be taken.
The wireworm potato pest has the following features:
- an elongated body resembling a worm, from 45 mm to 5 cm long;
- the presence of small villi on his shell;
- visibility of antennae;
- presence of legs with claws;
- coloring yellow, red, brown shades;
- life expectancy - up to three years.
Of all the varieties of click beetles, the most dangerous are: Melanotus; Agriotes; Selatosomus. Turning over on the abdomen, the beetle makes a sound in the form of a click. Hence its name: "clicker".
Lifestyle of the larva
At any stage of plant development, the wireworm can harm it. It makes its way inside the root crops, and the damage is filled with bacteria and fungi. In this regard, the percentage of the harvest drops to 80% in autumn. In the process of life, the pest then goes down, then rises to the surface, destroying root crops and shoots. There are two main periods of wireworm rise: in spring and late summer.
Given that with the advent of spring, the beetles begin to eat shoots and roots, it is quite obvious where the potato wireworm hibernates. Its larvae, deposited in the crevices of the earth, in the cracks of plants, come to the surface and consume the decaying grass, after which they are ready to start garden crops.
The larvae mostly feed on tubers, while adults eat the stems and pods of plants. The situation is complicated by the fact that the wireworm has a long period of development, which is why it disappears.essential part of the harvest.
After reaching two years, they reach a size of 30 mm. In the second half of summer, pest activity increases, and decreases only in rainy weather. How to get rid of wireworm in potatoes in autumn?
With the advent of autumn, wireworms prefer to group under heaps of straw, tops, so you can purposefully use this feature of the pest, leaving unharvested tops until late autumn. And with the onset of frost, you need to burn it, thus destroying the click beetle. In summer, this procedure can be repeated.
The survivability of the wireworm ensures its integrity after the winter: thanks to a deepening of 60 centimeters into the ground, the larvae are able to survive until spring.
How to detect a beetle in the area?
A lot of through holes in potatoes is a sign of the presence of pests in the garden. Withered bushes also indicate the "work" of the beetle, which does not move further until it destroys the entire plant.
The wireworm can be seen in the course of normal garden work. Favorable depth for him while searching for food is from 5 to 10 cm.
What does the wireworm love and what is it afraid of? The pest prefers acidic soil, moisture, dense grass cover. A fertile land enriched with nutrients allows the omnivorous beetle to reside and breed in it.
Daytime the Nutcracker loves moist shaded places. Small piles of grass or manure can lure the pest. This feature can be used both to catch the beetle, and take it into account in order to prevent its appearance in the garden.
General methods of dealing with wireworms
Before using chemical agents in the fight against wireworm, it is worth trying natural ones first. The destruction of the click beetle is easy to carry out by mechanical means, without resorting to complex and unsafe methods for he alth.
How to get rid of a wireworm in a potato plot:
- Comply with crop rotation, which can be difficult to achieve in small areas. The rules and phasing of crop rotation should be observed: if potatoes are planted first, then cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, legumes, pumpkins, beets, and carrots should be sown in turn. Before planting potatoes, crops such as spinach, legumes, rapeseed, buckwheat, mustard should be grown on the site for three years.
- Harvest the crop in time, without leaving it for the cold season: in this way it will be possible to deprive the pest of food.
- Decrease the acidity of the soil (high acidity is confirmed by the presence of plants such as plantain and sorrel).
- To attract clicker catchers to the site: it is enough to make feeders for tits, starlings, ravens, thrushes, rooks, wagtails.
- Destroy weeds: since the nutcracker eats the rhizomes of burdock, couch grass and loves to live surrounded by these plants, they should be removed first.
- Remove plant residues after autumnharvest.
- Treat potatoes before planting with special fertilizers.
- Dig up the soil before the onset of cold weather. The recommended loosening depth is about 20 centimeters.
- Periodically loosen the soil (in May, June).
Repelling Plants
Young seedlings of corn, oats, barley can be sown temporarily, before planting potatoes, then harvest from them, and dig the plot, preparing the soil for potatoes and eliminating larvae.
Among the repellent plants, green manure can be distinguished, among which mustard for wireworm planted on a potato bed is effective. It is advisable to sow the infected field with alfalfa, buckwheat, clover. The nutcracker does not tolerate these plants, therefore it does not linger in such places. Marigolds and calendula, located next to the potato patch, will also help.
Phacelia is a plant that feels comfortable at low temperatures. In addition to this, it helps to disinfect the soil and saturate it with minerals.
Lupine is green manure used for depleted soils. The soil during its cultivation is enriched with nitrogen and phosphorus.
Mustard is recommended to grow up to 10 cm in height, then mow, leaving it on the field for the winter. Essential oils released during the decay of plants are good at repelling pests.
In addition to mustard, turnip, sweet clover, spinach, rapeseed are suitable. It is also effective to plant legumes next to potatoes: they not only get rid ofwireworm, but also enrich the soil with nitrogen.
How to remove the wireworm from the potato field in an aesthetic way? Dahlias are exactly those plants next to which wheatgrass does not grow, and the pest does not tolerate the neighborhood.
Of the animals, toads are inveterate enemies of the wireworm, so if they appear on the site, they should not be poisoned. Also, these insects are eaten by ground beetles, ants, spiders.
Crater traps
How to defeat the wireworm on potatoes with baits? Experienced gardeners advise soaking potatoes beaten by a pest in a solution of a chemical poison for up to 24 hours, and then digging them in the garden. As a result, after only a couple of days it will be possible to detect dead wireworms along with poisoned tubers underground. Only first you need to mark the places of burying traps.
How to get rid of a wireworm in a potato plot with a simple trap? For this purpose, they take a half-liter jar, fill it with pieces of potatoes, carrots, and then dig into the soil up to the neck. After some time, an impressive number of pests, both adults and developing, can be found in the container.
A similar trap can be created in the form of a thread stretched into slices of vegetables underground. After a while, by extracting the thread with the bait for bugs, you can get an excellent top dressing for poultry. Such traps can periodically be useful throughout the summer, until the fall.
Forprocessing baits use the means "Aim" and "Namolt". For this purpose, take 0.5 ml of the drug per 100 ml of water. In this solution, you need to soak the bait, placing it for a while in a container with the drug.
Traps in the form of gauze bags made of 30x30 cm squares and filled with roasted seeds will help. Six baits will be enough for one hundred acres of land. Pests will crawl in, and after ten days you can dig up squares full of larvae.
Wireworms are also attracted by grape stalks, sunflower shoots, lettuce planted in the aisle. These cultures should be used in the fight against him. It is also possible to extract individuals of the wireworm from the soil when processing the beds with your hands: its color allows you to recognize it against the background of the earth.
Chemicals
Toxic for the nutcracker are nitrogen fertilizers, ammonia solution, potassium chloride, potassium permanganate. And before you poison the wireworm on potatoes, you should consider natural remedies against it. Chemistry does not always give a 100% result, while other plants may suffer, as all undissolved insecticide residues will settle in the ground.
How to deal with wireworm on potatoes with effective chemical solutions?
- Superphosphate in the amount of 5 kg is scattered in a layer over polyethylene. Then add 1 ml of "Karate" with acetone to the water. Superphosphate is sprayed with the prepared solution and left to dry. The final mixture is sufficient for processingarea of 100 square meters.
- Introduction of ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate with ammonia in the composition: about 30 g per square meter is enough.
- Introducing a solution of potassium permanganate into the soil (3 g per 10 l of water), 250 ml per well.
- Lime also gives a good result against wireworm in a potato plot.
- With digging the soil, you need to add chalk, lime, ash. The procedure itself is useful to carry out in mid-October: in this case, the larvae of the beetle, extracted from the ground, will be on the surface and die from the cold.
- It is useful to add dolomite flour to the soil every 5-7 years.
- Mineral s alt: applied to the surface of the soil gives a good effect. It is enough to scatter it in the garden once every five years, and then loosen the earth.
- The addition of wood ash during planting during the growth period to the surface is a guarantee of the absence of a nutcracker in a potato bed.
- Thick kvass: its remains after the preparation of the drink are placed in a stocking, bread crusts and a little yeast are added. The stocking is added dropwise so that its part is visible on the surface. After two days, wireworms will gather inside it. All that remains is to poison them.
Special preparations
How to get rid of the wireworm in the garden forever? The most popular remedy is the Nemabakt nematode. If used correctly, it is valid for two years and is absolutely harmless to humans and animals. The opened package is used immediately, it is forbidden to store the product.
Bacteria locatedas part of the product, they corrode the insect from the inside, leaving no strength for existence in it. After the introduction of the agent, the nematode destroys more than 60% of the larvae.
Special preparations against the pest are used strictly in accordance with the instructions. For this purpose, the land is cultivated with the following means: "Bazudin", "Provotoks", "Thunder", "Diazinon", "Zemlin", "Kapkan", "Initiation", "Vallar", "Dretsis", "Karate".
The "Prestige" preparation is a fairly effective chemical agent of a German manufacturer, which is produced with a measuring cap. The stems are treated with a solution of this agent, and the potatoes are sprayed before planting. Of the shortcomings of the product, it is worth emphasizing its considerable cost, of the advantages - efficiency, mild effect on crops, extermination of fungi, destruction of other insects, stimulation of growth.
"Aktara" - a drug that is sprayed on the tubers before planting, and also applied to the wells in the form of a powder. Means like Grom, Gromoboy-2, Medvedka-U are dangerous to humans, although they have a long and lasting effect.
"Bazudin" has the form of a granular powder. Interacting with insects, the drug penetrates into the intestines, as a result of which they are immobilized. For 10 g of the substance, 0.9 l of filler in the form of sand or sawdust is required.
"Provotox" is designed to damage the nervous system of the pest. Produced in the form of granules, whichspread over the surface of the soil. When the nutcracker finds the bait, it eats it and is poisoned. "Provotox" is environmentally friendly, does not pollute groundwater, is easily removed from the soil, and is affordable.
Effective preparations of this kind as "Barguzin" are also widespread: 15 g per 10 square meters; "Initiation" - 30 g per 10 m, respectively; "Voliam Flexi" is a broad-spectrum agent that does not depend on temperature conditions; "Metarizin" is a fungal-based insecticide containing sodium humate, which paralyzes the nervous system of the nutcracker (the effectiveness increases when applied to moist soil).
Folk remedies
How to deal with wireworm on potatoes with natural products? For a long time of dealing with it, gardeners have invented simple and effective methods:
Spread the crushed egg shells over the entire area of the potato plot: the pest will bypass these places. With the help of such a fence, you can successfully protect crop areas from the voracious beetle
- A proven way is to apply mustard powder to the soil, which can be done by mixing it with hot ground pepper.
- Use nettle or dandelion tincture to moisten the holes before planting potatoes in the ground. For this purpose, insist 500 g of nettle or 200 g of dandelion in a bucket of water. This volume is enough for 20 holes. But the best remedy for wireworm is considered to be celandine infusion. They need to water the soilon site.
Simpler folk remedies for wireworm on potatoes also include the following methods of struggle:
- adding onion skins to the wells;
- dropping pine or spruce needles in the garden: if there are needles, the wireworm leaves the territory;
- film coating with sugar syrup will attract a lot of insects, but this method will allow you to collect a large number of wireworms in order to destroy them.
Infusion of several herbs for watering potatoes from wireworm:
- nettle - 200 grams;
- coltsfoot, dandelion - 100 g each;
- celandine - 50g
The mixture of herbs must be poured with 5 liters of warm water, wait for a day, pour 1 liter of the resulting infusion under each potato bush.
Tips and Warnings
How to get rid of wireworm in autumn in potatoes? It is necessary to remove all potato tops from the site, otherwise the pest will overwinter in it and resume its activity with the advent of heat. A wilted bush must be urgently removed and removed. Parasitic bugs live on both leaves and rotting vegetables, so you should not accumulate them in the garden.
Timely care of the bed, removal of weeds and competent processing of crops increase the percentage of getting rid of wireworms. Full watering is important in the dry season: the lack of moisture creates favorable conditions for the wireworm to live. And the long growing season only exacerbates the situation, attracting more click beetles.
Land brought from another site can cause infectionwire beds. When caring for potatoes, it is also important that preventive actions are carried out by neighbors in the country or garden. It is not recommended to plant potatoes near lawns, perennial grasses, uncultivated and unturned soil.
The use of insecticides gives excellent results, but we should not forget that such methods of dealing with potato wireworms should not be abused. Pests quickly adapt to chemicals. Secondly, it is not good for vegetables. If there were no complications with wireworm before, it is better to replace insecticides with alternative means.
Applying phosphorus at planting will help to get good results, but there is no guarantee that the tubers will not be damaged. It should be borne in mind that it is much easier to prevent the invasion of a pest than to remove it.
It is undesirable to use rye as an insecticide: it not only dries out the soil, but also attracts pests. It is recommended to grow potatoes for two years in the same place, after which the area is sown with other crops.
How to permanently get rid of the wireworm in the garden? The way out is persistence. But one has only to assume that the pest is defeated and calm down, as he immediately appears again. You should choose an effective method, as well as the one that is most suitable for the gardener. By combining different methods of dealing with wireworms on the site, sustainable results can be achieved.
