Garden pests make you think about the safety of the crop, and, in particular, about how to deal with wireworms on potatoes. Habitual methods are unlikely to be effective, chemicals are unsafe, but several different methods used simultaneously will help to achieve better results.
What does a pest look like?
An elongated rigid body resembling a wire divided into segments caused the second name of the nutcracker. In fact, it damages a wide variety of root crops, not just potato tubers. And wheatgrass is his favorite.
The indicated pest is more serious compared to the Colorado potato beetle. Before fighting wireworms on potatoes, you should make sure that it spoils the crop. The measures that need to be taken will depend on this.
Potato pest wireworm has the following features:
- an elongated body resembling a worm, with a length of 45 mm to 5 cm;
- the presence of small villi on its shell;
- antennae visibility;
- the presence of legs with claws;
- coloring of yellow, red, brown shades;
- life expectancy is up to three years.
Of all the varieties of nutcracker beetles, the most dangerous are: Melanotus; Agriotes Selatosomus. Turning over to the abdomen, the beetle makes a sound in the form of a click. Hence its name: "nutcracker".
Larva lifestyle
At any stage of plant development, the wireworm is capable of harming it. He makes a move inside the root crops, and the damage is filled with bacteria and fungi. In connection with this fall, the percentage of the crop drops to 80%. In the process of life, the pest then drops down, then rises to the surface, destroying root crops and shoots. There are two main periods of raising wireworms: in spring and late summer.
Given that with the advent of spring, beetles begin to eat shoots and roots, it is quite obvious where the potato wire overwinters. Its larvae, deposited in the crevices of the earth, in the cracks of plants, come to the surface and consume decaying grass, after which they are ready to start garden crops.
Larvae feed mainly on tubers, while adults eat stems and plant pods. The situation is complicated by the fact that the wireworm has a long development period, due to which a significant part of the crop disappears.
Upon reaching two years, they reach a size of 30 mm. In the second half of summer, the activity of the pest increases, but 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 the uncleaned tops to fall until late autumn. And with the onset of frost, you need to burn it, thus destroying the nutcracker. In summer, this procedure can be repeated.
The survivability of the wireworm ensures its integrity after winter: thanks to a 60-centimeter deepening in the soil, the larvae can survive until spring.
How to detect a bug on the site?
Many through holes in the potato are 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.
A wireworm can be seen during routine work in the garden. The favorable depth for him during the search for food is from 5 to 10 cm.
What does the wireworm love and fear? The pest prefers acidified soil, moisture, density of grass cover. Auspicious land, enriched with nutrients, allows the omnivorous beetle to stay and breed in it.
Happy Nutcracker loves moist shaded places. Small heaps of grass or manure can lure the pest. This feature can be used both to catch the beetle and to take it into account in order to prevent its appearance on the garden bed.
Common wireworm control methods
Before using chemicals in the fight against wireworms, it is worth testing first natural. The destruction of the nutcracker is easy to carry out mechanically, without resorting to complex and unsafe health methods.
How to get rid of wireworm on a potato plot:
- Observe crop rotation, which can be difficult to implement in small areas. It is necessary to observe the rules and the phased rotation of the crop rotation: if potatoes are planted first, then you need to alternately sow cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, legumes, pumpkin, beets, carrots. Before planting potatoes, crops such as spinach, legumes, rapeseed, buckwheat, and mustard should be grown on the site for three years.
- Harvest in time, without leaving it for the cold season: in this way it will be possible to deprive the food pest.
- Reduce soil acidity (high acidity is confirmed by the presence of plants such as plantain and sorrel).
- To attract the nutcracker bird-hunters to the site: it is enough to make feeders for tits, starlings, ravens, blackbirds, rooks, wagtails.
- Destroy weeds: since the nutcracker eats rhizomes of burdock, wheat grass and likes to live surrounded by these plants, they should be removed first.
- Remove plant residues after autumn harvest.
- Process potatoes before planting with special fertilizers.
- Dig up the soil before the onset of cold weather. The recommended depth of cultivation is about 20 centimeters.
- Periodically loosen the soil (in May, June).
Scaring plants
Young seedlings of corn, oats, barley can be sown temporarily, before planting potatoes, and then harvest from them, and dig the plot, preparing the soil for potatoes and eliminating the larvae.
Among the deterring plants, siderates can be distinguished, among which mustard planted on the potato bed is effective for wireworms. 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 beds, 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 a green manure used for depleted soils. Soil during its cultivation is enriched with nitrogen and phosphorus.
Mustard is recommended to grow up to 10 cm in height, and then mow, leaving it on the field for the winter. Essential oils released in the process of decay of plants, well repel pests.
In addition to mustard, colza, clover, spinach, and rape are suitable. Also, legumes are effectively planted next to potatoes: they not only eliminate wireworms, but also enrich the soil with nitrogen.
How to remove wireworms from a potato field in an aesthetic way? Dahlias are precisely those plants near which wheat grass does not grow, and whose neighborhood the pest does not tolerate.
Of the animals, toads are the avid enemies of the wireworm, so if they appear on the site, they should not be poisoned. Ground beetles, ants, and spiders also eat these insects.
Nutcracker Traps
How to defeat a wireworm on potatoes with the help of baits? Experienced gardeners are advised to soak potatoes beaten by the pest in a solution of a chemical poisonous product for up to 24 hours, after which they should be dug in the garden. As a result, after just a couple of days, it will be possible to detect dead wireworms along with poisoned tubers underground. Only at first it is necessary to mark the places where traps are buried.
How to get rid of wireworm on a potato plot with a simple trap? For this purpose, take a half-liter jar, fill it with slices of potatoes, carrots, and then dig in the soil up to the neck. After some time, an impressive amount of pests, both adults and developing ones, 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 some time, removing the thread with the bait for beetles, you can get an excellent feeding for poultry. Such traps can periodically be beneficial throughout the summer, until the fall.
For the processing of baits, the Ame and Namolt tools are used. For this purpose, take 0.5 ml of the drug per 100 ml of water. In this solution, you need to soak the bait by placing it for a while in a container with the drug.
Traps in the form of gauze bags made of squares 30x30 cm in size and filled with fried seeds will help. Six lures will be enough for one hundredth of the earth. Pests crawl inside, and ten days later you can dig out squares full of larvae.
The wireworm is also attracted by grape stems, sunflower shoots, lettuce planted in the aisle. These cultures should be used in the fight against him. You can also extract wireworm specimens from the soil when processing the beds with your hands: its color allows you to recognize it against the background of the earth.
Chemicals
Nitrogen fertilizers, ammonia solution, potassium chloride, potassium permanganate are toxic to the nutcracker. And before poisoning the wireworm on potatoes, you should consider natural remedies against it. Chemistry does not always give a 100% result, while other plants may suffer, since all undissolved insecticide residues will settle in the ground.
How to deal with potato wireworms using effective chemical solutions?
- Superphosphate in an amount of 5 kg is scattered with a layer on top of polyethylene. Then add 1 ml of "Karate" with acetone to the water. Superphosphate is sprayed with the prepared solution and allowed to dry. The final mixture is enough to process an area of 100 square meters.
- The introduction of ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate with ammonia in the composition: enough about 30 g per square meter.
- Application of potassium permanganate solution (3 g per 10 l of water) into the soil, 250 ml per well.
- A good result also gives lime against wireworm on the potato plot.
- With digging the soil, you need to add chalk, lime, ash. The procedure itself is useful to carry out in mid-October: while the larvae of the beetle, extracted from the ground, will be on the surface and die from the cold.
- Once every 5-7 years, it is useful to add dolomite flour to the soil.
- Mineral salt: its application to the soil surface gives a good effect. It is enough to sprinkle it on the bed once for five years, and then loosen the ground.
- The addition of wood ash during planting during the period of growth to the surface is the guarantee of the absence of a nutcracker on a potato bed.
- Thick kvass: its residues after preparation of the drink are placed in a stocking, crusts of bread and a little yeast are added. The stocking is instilled in such a way that part of it is visible on the surface. After two days, wireworms will gather inside it. It remains only to poison them.
Special preparations
How to get rid of wireworm in the garden forever? The most popular remedy is the Nemabact nematode. Provided that it is used correctly, it is effective for two years and is absolutely harmless to humans and animals. Printed packaging is used immediately; storage is prohibited.
Bacteria that are part of the product corrode the insect from the inside, leaving no strength in it for existence. After the introduction of the drug, the nematode destroys more than 60% of the larvae.
Special preparations against the pest are used strictly in accordance with the instructions. To this end, the land is cultivated by the following means: Bazudin, Provotox, Thunder, Diazinon, Zemlin, Trap, Pochin, Vallar, Dretsis, Karate.
The drug "Prestige" is a fairly effective chemical product of the German manufacturer, which is available with a measuring cap. With a solution of this product, the stems are treated, and before planting, the potatoes are sprayed. Of the shortcomings of the product, it is worth emphasizing its considerable cost, of the advantages - effectiveness, a mild effect on crops, the destruction of fungi, the destruction of other insects, and growth stimulation.
"Aktara" - a drug that is sprayed on tubers before planting, and also contribute to the holes in powder form. Such products as Thunder, Stormbreaker-2, and Medvedka-U are dangerous to humans, although they have a long and lasting effect.
Bazudin is a granular powder. Interacting with insects, the drug penetrates the intestines, as a result of which they are immobilized. For 10 g of substance, 0.9 l of filler in the form of sand or sawdust is required.
"Provotox" is intended to affect the nervous system of the pest. It is produced in the form of granules, which are distributed 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 drugs of the type Barguzin are also common: 15 g per 10 square meters; "Initiative" - 30 g per 10 m, respectively; "Voliam Flexi" - a means of a wide spectrum of action, independent of temperature conditions; "Metarizine" is a fungal-based insecticide with sodium humate in its composition, paralyzing the nervous system of the nutcracker (its effectiveness increases when applied to moist soil).
Folk remedies
How to deal with potato wireworms using natural products? For a long time struggling with it, gardeners invented simple and effective methods:
- Spread the crushed eggshell over the entire area of the potato plot: the pest will bypass these places. With the help of such a hedge, crop plots can be successfully protected from a gluttonous beetle.
- A proven method is the introduction of mustard powder into the soil, which is permissible by mixing it with bitter ground pepper.
- Use tinctures of nettle or dandelion, which need to moisten the holes before planting potatoes in the ground. To this end, 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 the infusion of celandine. They need to water the soil on the site.
More simple folk remedies for wireworm on potatoes also include the following methods of control:
- introduction of onion peel into the wells;
- digging up pine or spruce needles in the garden: in the presence of needles, the wireworm leaves the territory;
- a 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 wireworms:
- nettle - 200 grams;
- coltsfoot, dandelion - 100 g each;
- celandine - 50 g.
A mixture of herbs must be poured 5 liters of warm water, wait for a day, pour 1 liter of the resulting infusion under each potato bush.
Tips & Warnings
How to get rid of wireworms in autumn in potatoes? It is necessary to remove all potato tops from the site, otherwise the pest will winter in it and with the advent of heat will resume its activity. A withered bush needs to be urgently removed and removed. Parasitic beetles live both on tops and on rotting vegetables, so you should not accumulate them in the garden.
Timely care of the garden, weed removal and proper crop processing increase the percentage of getting rid of wireworms. High-grade watering in the dry season is important: a lack of moisture creates favorable conditions for the wireworm to inhabit. A long growing season only exacerbates the situation, attracting more and more nutcrackers.
Land brought in from another site may cause the beds to become infected with wireworms. 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 not dug up soil.
The use of insecticides gives excellent results, but we should not forget that these methods of dealing with potato wire should not be abused. Pests quickly adapt to chemicals. Secondly, it is not good for vegetables. If previously there were no complications with wireworms, it is better to replace insecticides with alternative agents.
The introduction of phosphorus during planting will help to get good results, but there is no guarantee that tubers will not be damaged. It should be borne in mind that it is much easier to prevent the invasion of the pest than to remove it.
It is undesirable to use rye as an insecticide: it not only drains the soil, but also attracts pests. It is recommended to grow potatoes for two years in the same place, after which the area should be sown with other crops.
How to permanently get rid of wireworm in the garden? The way out is constancy. But one has only to assume that the pest is defeated and calm down, as it immediately appears again. You should choose an effective method, as well as one that is most suitable for the gardener. By combining various methods of controlling wireworms on the site, you can achieve sustainable results.