Often wireworm becomes a curse for gardeners, especially beginners. After all, this pest usually attacks rarely on vegetable gardens, which are regularly carried out for a long time. The harmfulness of the parasite is quite large, especially the potato suffers from it. Sometimes the struggle with him stretches for many years. On proven measures to combat wireworm, read this article. The information collected here will quickly and effectively get rid of the annoying eater of plant crops.
Meet the wireworm
In order to know the enemy in person, you must have an idea of what the wire looks like. These are adult larvae of click beetles (lat. Elateridae), which got their name because of a very strong and rigid body, like a wire, - it is impossible to crush them with your fingers. The larvae are colored in yellow, brown, dark brown tones and reach sizes of 10-45 mm in length. The development cycle of beetles is five years. Click beetles come to the surface of the soil in April. Oviposition is carried out in the ground, to a depth of 1-3 cm. One female can lay 120-150 eggs. After two or three weeks, small larvae appear, painted white and easily vulnerable. At this time they can be destroyed by ground beetles. They are not capable of harming cultivated plants.
As they grow, about the second year of life, the larvae of the click beetle acquire a yellowish or brownish color, their body becoming more rigid. In this state, they are eaten by chickens and insectivorous birds. And it is at this age that they cause the greatest damage to plants. Wireworms live in the upper layers of the soil - at a depth of up to 5 cm. Under adverse weather conditions, they deepen by 50-60 cm. The larvae pupate in the middle of summer of the fourth year of life. Adult beetles appear in 15-20 days. Hibernate in the ground.
Did you know? Wireworms are almost omnivorous. In search of food, they can move in any direction over long distances.
What crops does wireworm damage?
The most beloved delicacy of the larvae of the click beetle is the potato. Also his favorite plants are beets, carrots, barley, wheat, corn. Damage onions and sunflowers. Of the weeds, the wireworms adore the wheatgrass creeping. The larvae feed on seeds, sprouts, roots, the underground part of the stem, roots and tubers. Plants that were damaged by wireworms slow down growth and reduce yields. Potato tubers affected by this pest are not suitable for planting, because they rot quickly. In addition to agricultural, wireworms also harm garden and forest crops.
Did you know? The wireworm is actively spreading on wet and sour soils, on a thickened vegetable garden littered with wheat grass.
Now you can easily recognize the wireworm and have an idea that this is a dangerous pest that can cause such a huge harm - up to the destruction of most of the crop. Next, we look at the most effective measures that help rid the garden of click-beetle larvae.
Preventive measures and agrotechnical work on the site
There are three ways to get the wireworm on the site:
- agrotechnical;
- biological;
- chemical.
The greatest effect in the fight against wireworms can be achieved by applying several methods simultaneously. In order to avoid the appearance of pest larvae in your garden, you must follow the rules of agricultural engineering. Since the beetles and larvae winter in the soil, the ground in the garden shows a deep digging, as well as dump plowing. Produce them in October, towards the end of the month. These procedures extract the wireworms to the surface of the soil, where the first frosts will destroy them.
Important! Autumn tillage will allow for two to three years to reduce the number of pests by 50-90%.
It is also important to destroy the plant remnants of cultivated plants and wheatgrass creeping - manually pull out its rhizomes. In no case can not leave for the winter in the land of potato tubers. After all, in this way, you will provide food to the pest for the winter period. And you need, on the contrary, to deprive him of this pleasure. Do not neglect one of the main rules of agricultural technology - the timely destruction of weeds. Besides wheatgrass, be sure to get rid of burdocks. And they should be destroyed along with the roots, since it is there that the larvae live. In May and June, surface loosening is used. Lying to the natural enemies of a click beetle is also a preventive measure. These include insectivorous birds: turtle dove, rook, thrush, crow, starling, wagtail. Also beetles and larvae are eaten by frogs, ground beetles, spiders, ants.
Reduced soil acidity (chalking)
Wireworm likes to live in acidic soils, so one of the ways to prevent it will be to reduce the acidity of the soil by adding lime, coal dust, chalk, wood ash. Lime is scattered directly on the beds, or introduced into the planting wells. Also in the wells add onion peel, ash.
Sowing cereals, legumes, mustard
One of the methods of bait wireworms is to attract them by planting 10-15 grains of barley, wheat, oats, and corn on the site in one or two weeks before planting potatoes or other vegetables. Subsequently, the shoots dig, the larvae are destroyed. It is also necessary to plant mustard in the area where it is planned to plant potatoes in the future - its wireworms do not like it. First, it is sown in the fall, after harvest. After 1-1.5 months, mustard reaches a height of 10 cm. It is cut and laid in the ground for the winter. Spring mustard sow again. Then it is also cut and buried in the soil. When decomposed, the plant will release essential oils into the ground, which will scare away the wireworm. Also, the larvae do not tolerate legumes on the spirit: peas, beans, beans. Therefore, to scare off the parasite, they must be planted next to the potatoes. Sometimes these crops are planted directly in a potato well.
Crop rotation
Fully expelled wireworm from the garden allows the correct crop rotation. The fact is that with time the soils become depleted, an increasing number of diseases and pests settle in them. Therefore, it is not recommended to plant the same culture or its relatives annually in the same place. The earth must be allowed to rest for three years. In addition, if, for example, in the next season, a crop is planted in place of the potato, which the wireworms do not eat, then many of the individuals will die of hunger until they find food elsewhere. Before the potato is recommended to plant such crops: spinach, beans, rapeseed, mustard, buckwheat. They need to alternate for two to three years - during this time the wireworm will leave.
Beetle bait
Beetles and larvae can be lured with baits. For example, they are prepared as follows. In late April - early May, when the wireworms still feed on weeds, they make small depressions in which they put semi-ripened grass, straw, or hay. Top cover with boards. In search of food larvae will move into these traps. After one or two days, when the pests are massively chosen by grass and straw, it is removed and destroyed by burning. To achieve the effect of the procedure is carried out several times.
Such bait can be made from cut potatoes, carrot pieces, beets. They are buried in the ground at a depth of 7-15 cm at a distance of 1 m from each other one to two weeks before planting young crops. Later, they are also dug and destroyed along with the larvae. Bury trap sites are signposted. Potatoes can be strung in a line. Apply and banks filled with young potato leaves.
They are placed in the amount of 10 pieces per one hundred. Every two to three days, the contents of the cans are updated. Also, lettuce leaves are planted as a trap between potato bushes. First, the wireworms will destroy the roots of this particular plant, which will allow the potatoes to be intact for a while. It helps to get rid of the pest and crushed eggshell. It is scattered around the garden throughout the summer. Bait - a time-consuming method, but safe for the environment and allows you to significantly reduce the number of pests in the garden.
Insecticide treatment
Before deciding to treat the garden with chemicals from wireworms, it is necessary to try as many natural ways to expel a pest as possible. A gentle method of reducing the number of parasites is fertilizing the soil with ammonium-containing fertilizers, or introducing ammonia water. The difficulty lies in the fact that ammonia water must be embedded in the soil in order to avoid the volatilization of ammonia. For gentle methods include watering the land before planting pink solution of potassium permanganate (5 g / 10 l of water). Consumption - 10 l / 10-15 holes. Also, before planting, the soil is watered with an aqueous solution prepared from 5 g of potassium permanganate and 10 liters of water.
Before plowing or during planting potatoes, you can make the composition, prepared as follows. 5 kg of superphosphate granules scatter on the film. Pesticide ("Aktellik" (15 ml), "Karate" (1 ml), "Decis extra" (4 ml)) diluted in water-acetone solution (80 ml of water, 200 ml of acetone). Mix the spray granules on polyethylene, dry and spread on the site. Consumption of the mixture is designed for 100 sq. M. After this procedure, the soil must be dug up.
Important! The use of insecticidal agents from the wireworm is an extreme measure, used only if other methods have not helped.
In the event of a massive invasion of the wireworm, other chemicals can be used. The most undesirable among all methods is the introduction of the drug "Basudin". Consumption - 40 g / 1 sq. M. m. The active substance, which is part of this tool - diazonin, highly toxic to humans and the environment. 5% diazonin is also added to the wells during planting (30 g / 10 sq. M). Some of the insecticides used in the mass distribution of wireworm include "Prestige" (kills up to 50-70%). However, its use is possible only on mid-late and late varieties, otherwise there is a great risk to human health. In addition to the wireworm helps to cope with the Colorado potato beetle. The drug "Provotoks" is aimed only at getting rid of the wireworm. With its help, they process potatoes tubers before planting.
Important! When using insecticides, it is necessary to strictly follow the instructions on the packaging, as well as to observe safety measures.
Recipes homemade infusions
For many years of pest control by gardeners, various folk methods have been tried. One of them is watering with herbal infusions of nettle, celandine, coltsfoot.
Nettle
An infusion of nettle is prepared as follows: a pound of crushed plants to insist throughout the day in 10 liters of water. The procedure is repeated two or three times at intervals of a week. The prepared solution is used immediately after preparation, it is not subject to storage.
From celandine
It helps to protect the potatoes from the wireworm by soaking its tubers for a short time before planting in the infusion of celandine, or by adding the infusion to the hole. Infusion of celandine is prepared as follows: 100 g of crushed plants diluted with 10 liters of water and insist for three days. As in the previous case, the treatment of the soil with plant extract is used two or three times with an interval of seven days.
Of coltsfoot
For the preparation of vegetable infusion take 200 g of crushed mother and stepmother, pour it with 10 liters of water and insist 24 hours. A similar infusion is also prepared from 200 g of dandelion. It is important to understand that the use of folk remedies from the wireworm will not give one hundred percent result. They must be introduced into the complex of measures for the expulsion of the parasite from the garden.
We have considered many ways to deal with wireworm. However, the main thing is still not efforts to eliminate the invasion, but measures to prevent it. If you follow the rules of agricultural engineering and crop rotation, reduce the acidity level of the soil, remove the wheat grass, the wire will not find a place in your garden, and you will be able to direct all your efforts to the cultivation and harvest of excellent crops.
