How to get rid of wireworms using potatoes. How to get rid of wireworms, means and methods of dealing with it. Chemical and folk methods of control

The wireworm penetrates the potato, leaving narrow through passages in it. After this, the tubers are not suitable for storage, and if they are too damaged by the pest, then they cannot be used for cooking at all. When the wireworm infestation is insignificant, the damaged parts of the potato can be cut out, but you will have to tinker with cleaning it. The wireworm is well known to gardeners, but effective chemicals for control of wireworms on potatoes not much yet. Basically, the destruction of the pest is carried out using traditional methods.

The article describes why it is so difficult get rid of wireworms in a potato plot And how to fight with its larvae using folk methods and chemical means. The emphasis is on on landings potatoes, but is also applicable to other vegetable crops.

Know the enemy by sight!

Unlike other pests, the wireworm leads an underground lifestyle, and is rarely seen except in dug up potatoes or when digging up the soil. Treating an entire plot of land with pesticides to destroy the larvae is a physically impossible task. Yes, this is also dangerous, because the poison gets into the vegetables intended for food.

Difficulties in control arise due to the length of the insect’s life cycle. In the spring, the female click beetle lays eggs in shallow crevices on the soil surface and under weeds. A month later, larvae emerge from the clutches and will live in the ground for 3-4 years. In the first season, they do not pose a threat to vegetable crops, as they feed on roots. During the second and third years, the larvae are very active, the body becomes hard and dense, and is not easy to crush. It is during this period that the activity of the wireworm causes enormous damage to the harvest of potatoes, carrots, beets and other root crops. In the fourth year, the larva pupates, and in the spring it turns into a winged click beetle. Next, the insect development cycle repeats.

Wireworm in potatoes: photo

Traditional methods: baits, infusions, solutions, care

To deprive the larvae of food in the first year of their life, you should keep the garden clean, constantly getting rid of weeds. This is especially true for creeping wheatgrass, the roots of which wireworms love to eat.

What else can be done to combat the pest:

• Plant potatoes after beans, peas, beans;
• Plant lettuce between rows of potatoes. He will distract the wireworm, taking the “fire” upon himself;
• If the soil on the site is acidic, liming it;
• Digging the soil before frosts;
• Before planting potatoes, spot-sow grain seeds (barley, oats, wheat), and when they sprout, dig them up along with the collected pests.

Important! To get rid of wireworms or reduce its activity, experienced gardeners recommend an integrated approach, using several methods of pest control at the same time.

Wireworm baits can be called perhaps the most effective method of struggle. Pieces of raw potatoes are strung on twigs (or fishing line) and buried in the soil (depth approximately 5 - 15 cm). One end of the twig remains outside so that it can be easily found. After 3 days, the bait is dug up and destroyed along with the larvae that “pecked” at it. Instead of potatoes, you can use beets and carrots. The capture procedure begins in the spring, half a month before planting potatoes, and can continue all summer. If the potatoes have already been planted, the bait is buried in the rows every 10 cm. The caught larvae are burned, scalded with boiling water or given to chickens to eat.

Pieces of potatoes or other vegetables are placed in a glass jar, and the container is buried up to the rim. Any larvae found are destroyed.

Another effective bait is used in early spring, when the soil is just starting to warm up. Small depressions are made in several places on the site, and straw, hay or dried grass is laid out in them. Larvae accumulate in traps in search of food and warmth. After 4 days, the grass is removed from the holes and burned along with the wireworms, and another is placed in its place. The process is repeated several times.

Folk herbal infusion against wireworms. Crushed nettle (500 g), dandelion or coltsfoot (200 g) are poured into 10 liters of water and left for 3 days. It is recommended to water the potatoes at the roots with this infusion for three weeks. Watering frequency - once a week, exactly on the same day.

Although the following method is not very efficient, it is suitable for complex struggle, or when wireworm not very widespread yet on the potato plot. The soil is spilled with a weak solution of potassium permanganate (dosage: 5 g per 10-liter bucket of water). To save time and reduce manganese consumption, over a large area of ​​the garden it is permissible to add a solution to each well (500 ml of solution). The procedure is carried out before planting potatoes. They write that the method gives results on alkaline soils.

Fighting wireworms in autumn

In the autumn, when digging up the soil It is recommended to add 1 liter of wood ash to each square meter of potato plot. By the way, when digging the soil, the larvae can be partially removed.

It is also useful to add ammonium sulfate to the soil in the fall in the amount of 2 tbsp. spoons per square meter. Ammonium sulfate destroys the larvae and enriches the soil with nitrogen.

They help to improve the soil and get rid of weeds and pests. green manure. An excellent green manure for potatoes is mustard. We ourselves have been sowing our potato plot with mustard for several years now and are very pleased! If in autumn, after potatoes, plant mustard, by spring the soil becomes looser, there are significantly fewer weeds, but the question is, how to deal with wireworm on potatoes, ceases to be relevant. Checked! We described our experience.

Chemicals. After harvesting, granular insecticides are applied to the soil before digging the area. You can combine pesticides with fertilizers. To do this, superphosphate is distributed in a thin layer on a flat surface covered with film and sprayed with pesticides (“Karate” or “Decis”) dissolved in water (80 ml) with acetone (200 ml). The dried granules are brought in for digging. If for some reason this could not be done, 5 g of granules treated in this way can be added to each well during planting of potatoes.

How to get rid of wireworms in a potato plot forever?

The author of one of the books in the “Encyclopedia of Country Life” series claims that the best way to combat wireworms is to alternate crops on the site! Potatoes planted after peas or beans will be free from the attacks of a malicious pest. In addition, regular weeding and hilling between rows destroys the larvae. Thus, the key to success is cleanliness, proper care and no chemicals!

Get rid of wireworms in a potato plot- it’s a troublesome task, but if you want to get a high-quality potato harvest that will be stored all winter, it’s better to try and make an effort. It's worth it!

Sources of information: “Encyclopedia of Country Life”, Internet.

HOW TO GET RID OF WIRE WIRE

We encounter this pest more than once when digging up the soil, but we begin to sound the alarm most often when we are suddenly left without a crop, for example, without potatoes. Then the questions arise: how to get rid of wireworms, what remedies for wireworms are the most effective and safe? After all, there are plenty of methods to combat this pest.

In the photo: external signs of potato wireworm damage

WIRE MAN – WHO IS HE?

Wireworms are soil-dwelling, worm-like insects that get their name from their shiny bodies that resemble copper wire. Contrary to the opinion of some amateur gardeners, wireworms are not worms, but the larval stage of click beetles.

Among the 10,000 species of click beetles (Elateridae), the larvae of only a few dozen species are pests of agricultural crops. The rest are predators, saprophytes, and omnivores. Among the wireworm larvae there are species that are directly involved in soil-forming processes and bring benefits.
Wireworm pests feed on roots and other underground parts of plants (roots, rhizomes, tubers). With their developed mandibles (jaws), wireworms can chew through any root crop, and the thick chitinous covering of the head and body protects the larvae from mechanical damage.
Potatoes often suffer from wireworms. The pest can completely destroy a crop by making multiple tunnels in the tubers and feeding on them. Such potatoes can be recognized by their external signs - small dark depressions in the skin - these are the points of penetration. Inside, the affected tubers are riddled with narrow black tunnels through which the wireworm moved. They become unsuitable for food, as the potato pulp in the damaged areas begins to rot.
The menu of this pest also consists of other root vegetables - carrots, beets, radishes, radishes, as well as cucumbers and onions, cabbage and lettuce. The wireworm loves to eat germinating seeds and young shoots, including lawn grasses, destroying crops. Therefore, it is so important to know how to get rid of wireworms in areas where vegetables are cultivated or lawns are created.
To be 100% effective, you need to use several means of controlling wireworms and combine them with preventive measures.

AGROTECHNICAL METHODS OF COMBATING WIREBORMS ON POTATOES AND MORE

Agrotechnical methods of controlling wireworms must be used, even if the latest chemicals are used.
The most effective methods of combating wireworms, including on potatoes:
Change in soil acidity;
Changing crops in areas infested with wireworm larvae;
Destruction of weeds, the underground parts of which, in the absence of potatoes, serve as food for larvae (wheatgrass, some types of sedge, chicken millet);
Deep plowing of the soil;
Introduction of nitrogenous substances into the soil;
Simultaneous planting with potatoes of other crops that wireworms do not like;
Destruction of male click beetles (used in large farms).

In the photo: wireworm and click beetle (species). From the moment of laying eggs, an adult is formed on average in 4 years. Each female is capable of laying one and a half hundred eggs. As the wireworm matures, its size and the damage it causes increases year by year. The pest wireworm can reach a length of 2.5 cm.

Change in soil acidity
Wireworm larvae prefer to live and develop in substrates with weak acidity, that is, pH 5.5 -6.0. When the soil environment changes to neutral (pH 7), the number of wireworms decreases by 50-80%. Adult beetles will not lay eggs in such a substrate, which will allow them to get rid of the larvae in the future.
To do this, lime or other lime-containing substances (limestone, calcareous tuff, dolomite flour) are added to the soil. After adding them, the soil is dug up, watered and left for several days, then dug up and watered again.
If such materials are not at hand, ground egg shells will be a good remedy for wireworms; it will reduce the pest population in the area.

Change of crops
Alternating potatoes with other agricultural crops significantly reduces the number of click beetle larvae, and sometimes completely destroys them. To get rid of wireworms, it is important to choose the right order of plants for planting. Root crops (carrots, beets, daikon, etc.) are not suitable for this crop rotation, since they also serve as food for wireworms.
The best option is nitrogen-fixing plants. These are representatives of the legume family, which can be forage, ornamental or food:
various types of clover;
Vika;
rank;
alfalfa;
sweet clover;
peas;
beans;
annual lupine.
You can add oats to legumes and sow, for example, peas and oats.
Another agrotechnical remedy for wireworm is to use mustard, rapeseed or buckwheat as a replacement crop.
In both cases, the larvae die due to the inability of the digestive system to adapt to new food. However, the best option would be with plants belonging to the Legume family, because the soil is enriched with nitrogen during their growth. In addition to the benefits for the substrate, an increase in the amount of nitrogen has a detrimental effect on the wireworm. The combination of nitrogen and hydrogen, an ammonium cation, easily penetrates the protective chitinous cover of the pest, and an excess of ammonium cations leads to the death of the larvae. Among all cations, ammonium ion ranks first in penetration through the chitinous cover of click beetle larvae.

In the photo: Examples of wireworm damage to carrot roots and eating up the roots of vegetable seedlings

Adding nitrogenous substances to the soil
Similar to the action of legumes, mineral fertilizers and other organic substances containing ammonium salts help get rid of wireworms. In the presence of water in the ground, they will dissociate (separate) with the formation of ammonium cations that are harmful to the wireworm.

Plowing and loosening the soil
Deep loosening of the substrate is usually carried out in the fall, just before frost. The purpose of this process is to pull the eggs of the click beetle and its larvae to the surface, where they will freeze with the onset of cold weather.
The disadvantage of this method of combating wireworms is that the larvae prepare for winter and accumulate glycogen, so they can tolerate frosts down to -2 - 4 degrees for several days. In addition, when digging up the ground, not all larvae end up on the surface: the majority still remain in the ground and successfully overwinter.
Loosening the soil at the beginning of summer leads to the fact that recently laid beetle eggs appear on the surface (females lay eggs not too deep - from 1 to 4 cm). When exposed to sunlight, egg shells quickly dry out and burst. Undeveloped larvae die. Since it is impossible to accurately determine the time at which the female will lay eggs, this method of combating wireworms must be used in conjunction with other measures to destroy the pest.

Parallel landing
Simultaneously planting some plants along with potatoes is an effective method in the fight against wireworms. During planting, a pea or bean is thrown into the potato hole along with the tubers, or crops from the legume family are planted in the potato rows. This method is relevant for those who do not have the opportunity to do seed rotation.

Catching males
Large farms use special traps to catch male click beetles, which are attracted by the smell of female click beetles emanating from them - special pheromones. Following instinct, click beetles rush there to mate and are caught. This makes it impossible for the pest to reproduce.

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FOLK REMEDIES FOR FIGHTING WIRE WIRE(used on potatoes)

Folk methods of controlling wireworms often have something in common with agrotechnical ones:
1. Laying out traps for beetles and their larvae. At the end of spring, you need to dig holes in the soil (up to 2 cm deep) and put rotted straw or dried grass in them. Water the holes and cover them with slate or boards. After a few days, wireworms will appear in the traps. Hay or grass should be burned;
2. Treatment of potato tubers before planting with infusion of wormwood and celandine;
3. Traps in the form of containers with a small amount of earth and bait in the form of pieces of root vegetables or potatoes.
4. Watering during planting or 2-3 weeks after it with a solution of potassium permanganate (potassium permanganate). The solution should be of medium concentration (pink).

CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL PREPARATIONS FOR WIREBORUS

The most well-known drug in the fight against wireworms is the broad-spectrum insecticide “Bazudin”. One of its advantages is that it is not too toxic and almost not dangerous for vertebrate animals (including humans).
A similar drug for wireworms is “Diazonin” 10 RG. Like the previous product, this broad-spectrum insecticide is used for various plants, not just potatoes. Effective on many soil and leaf pests.
The drug "Prestige" is a more specialized product; it is used mainly for treating potato tubers before planting, as well as "Cruiser" and "Celest". The Aktara solution is used to pour furrows or holes before planting potatoes.
Of the narrowly targeted drugs that act only on soil pests, “Force” and “Metarizin” should be noted. The last of the listed remedies for wireworms is more likely to be biological, since the active ingredients are not of chemical origin. These are microscopic pathogenic fungi. They infect click beetle larvae, but do not harm beneficial soil inhabitants.
The granular insecticide “Provotox”, created specifically to combat wireworms, does not cause the death of soil microflora and earthworms, which is very important for preserving the soil as an integral ecosystem.

Several decades ago, the most effective chemical preparation for wireworms was dust, which was highly toxic and accumulated in the soil and then in the human body. Now it is banned.

By following these rules, you can prevent or defeat the pest. Now the question is “How to get rid of wireworm?” won't confuse you.

On video: how to get rid of wireworms in various ways, methods of dealing with wireworms - two solutions to the same problem

What is a wireworm insect? It is the larva of a click beetle, a polyphagous pest that attacks the root crops of beets, carrots, potatoes, as well as sunflowers, corn, melons, etc.

A characteristic mark is root vegetables marked with black spots. Its length reaches 3 cm, the development of the larva to the bug stage takes 5 years, so it will take a long time to fight it.

The presence of wireworms means that click beetles themselves have already appeared in the soil, which in themselves are not so dangerous, unlike their offspring.

Preventing the appearance of wireworms on the site

• , annual legumes are planted before planting root crops or between rows (beans, peas,);
• green manure grows in the garden (phacelia, mustard);
• In the fall, the soil is dug deep using a spade, and in the spring it is done superficially. The wireworm is manually removed and burned; it can be placed in a bowl of gasoline;
• it settles in damp and acidic soil, and liming will help reduce the likelihood of its occurrence. They use eggshells, lime or chalk for this;
• apply mineral fertilizers with ammonium, such as ammonium sulfate and ammonia water;
• remove weeds, especially your favorite delicacy;
• remove tops after mowing;
• do not thicken plantings.

Measures to combat wireworms

If a wireworm appears in the garden, then immediately begin to fight it using folk or chemical methods.

In case of a small pest invasion, they come up with different baits:

1. Before planting, 3-4 days before planting, take sticks 20 cm long, place half a raw potato, beet or carrot on one end and dig them into the soil to a depth of 10 cm. After a few days, the baits are pulled out along with the wireworms and the pests are collected. Renew the cut on the root crop, moisten it with water and bury it again.
2. You have to fight the click beetles themselves all summer long. Glass jars with a volume of 0.25 l or 0.5 l in the amount of 10 pieces per 1 hundred square meters of land are buried in the shade on the site up to the neck. Place chopped raw potatoes, carrots or beets in pieces at the bottom of each jar, check every 2-3 days, collect insects and renew the bait.
3. Wireworms like to gather in a pile of straw, tops or manure, so in the fall all this can be spread out around the site, and when frost sets in, it can be collected and burned. In the spring, you can also lay out piles and after a while burn them and lay out new ones.
4. If there is a mass infestation of wireworms, plant everything with legumes. This is very effective, he will quickly leave the area.
5. When planting potatoes, plant 2-3 beans in each hole, this way you will drive wireworms away from the potatoes and replenish the soil with nitrogen.
6. Plant marigolds and marigolds around the perimeter of the site.

1. When planting in spring, the holes or furrows are watered with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. 10 liters of solution should be used for 20-25 wells.
2. In the fall, under digging, add potassium chloride, which will help destroy the pest in 2-3 years.
3. Among the drugs, Pochin and Bazudin are effective. When planting, dilute it with sand and add 1 teaspoon of the mixture to each hole.
4. In the fall, cover the area with lime, when the snow melts, the lime falls into the ground and the wireworm leaves.

Liming and adding phosphorus to the soil before planting potatoes is effective, but the quality of the tubers is reduced!

Chemical methods of controlling wireworms are simple, quick and effective, but toxic, so if the soil is slightly infested with the pest, try to use agricultural methods.

Potatoes, like other garden crops, can be susceptible to attacks by pests, not least of which are wireworms. They can cause significant damage to plantings, so they must be destroyed in every possible way. If you also encounter such a problem, find out how and with what means you can get rid of wireworms in your potato plot.

Wireworms are thin, 1-4.5 cm long, light yellow to brown worms with a hard, chitinous covering. It is because of their body shape and rigidity that they get their name. Wireworms can be found when digging soil in the garden. These are the larvae of click beetles of the Selatosomus and Agriotes species, the adults of which are black with a metallic sheen or brown beetles 1-6 cm long.

The full development cycle of click beetles, from egg to adult, takes 5 years. In the spring, females emerge from the ground where they overwintered and lay hundreds of eggs on the remains of plants, under clods of earth or in cracks on its surface. After 2-3 weeks, larvae emerge from them. In the first year, they do not grow more than 0.7 cm in length, remain soft, and therefore cannot harm cultivated plants. But over the next 3 years they become stronger, move actively and begin to damage cultivated plants. They manage to eat seeds even before they germinate, eat small roots, make tunnels in stems and roots, and thereby cause significant damage to agricultural crops.

Wireworms are not indifferent to potatoes either. They make holes in the tubers and move inside, eating away the contents, making it unfit for consumption. The damage caused by wireworms is further aggravated by the fact that infection penetrates into the tunnels made, and damaged tubers quickly rot. The passages of wireworms spoil the appearance of tubers and reduce the shelf life of potatoes stored in storage.

Click beetles live everywhere, and the larvae are able to live in soils of any type and any acidity, so you can find wireworms in any garden. There are especially many of them in areas overgrown with wheatgrass, since the roots of this plant are their favorite food. They also love damp and unlit places, densely overgrown with other representatives of cereal weeds. Potatoes are affected mainly when there is a lack of wheatgrass roots and moisture in the soil.

How to detect a pest on the site

Beetle larvae live in the soil and do not appear on the surface, so they can only be noticed when digging up the ground or pulling out weeds by the roots. An external sign of damage to a potato bush by wireworms is wilted tops, although it is impossible to say for sure that the cause of this is wireworms. You can find them only if you dig up the bush and examine the tubers. If passages 1-2 mm in diameter are found in them, then these are wireworms.

If you leave everything as is, then in an area infested with these pests you may not get up to 60% of the harvest, because wireworms gnaw roots, stems and root crops throughout the warm period of the year. You can also dig up the wheatgrass and inspect its roots: if yellow hard worms are found on them, then it is quite possible that they have already reached the potatoes.

How to deal with wireworm on potatoes

Land plots that are infested with the pest are unsuitable for growing potatoes. In such beds it is simply impossible to harvest a full-fledged harvest, and the quality and keeping quality of the tubers leave much to be desired. To ensure that you get rid of wireworms on potatoes, it is most effective to use an integrated approach to combating it.

Agrotechnical measures

Pest control in a potato field should begin before planting the crop and continue during its cultivation. Taking into account the peculiarities of the wireworm’s life and its preferences, carrying out a number of simple works will help to actively destroy it. In personal areas, attention is paid to the following points:

1. Deep digging of soil in areas intended for potatoes. It is performed late in the fall to destroy weeds, especially wheatgrass, which wireworms like to feed on. The roots of the plants are carefully selected from the ground and then destroyed. The soil is not leveled, but left in layers, which leads to the death of some pests from frost. Spring digging of the beds helps destroy new clutches of eggs and prevent the proliferation of wireworms.
2. Maintaining a neutral soil reaction. It is known that wireworms feel comfortable precisely in an acidic environment, the formation of which is facilitated by excessive humidity, the use of mineral fertilizers, and the natural composition of the soil. Horsetail, plantain, horse sorrel, and mint growing wildly on the site serve as indicators. Liming according to predecessors, adding dolomite flour or ash when preparing beds for planting potatoes will help reduce acidity.
3. Introduction of legumes into crop rotation, incorporation of nitrogenous mineral and organic fertilizers into the soil. Sowing soybeans, peas or beans can easily and safely get rid of wireworms in potato beds. The pest cannot tolerate proximity to these plants; they release nitrogen, which in the soil turns into ammonium compounds that are harmful to it. The same problem is solved by incorporating fertilizers into the soil with mandatory irrigation.
4. I sow green manure as replacement crops. Good choices here include mustard, rapeseed, clover, lupine, sweet clover, alfalfa and buckwheat. They will not only help remove wireworms from the potato field (the beetle larvae die due to their inability to digest such food), but will also be an excellent feeding.
5. Compliance with the rules of planting and caring for potatoes. Excessive plant density and a large number of roots in the ground are a favorable environment for wireworms to reproduce. To prevent its spread, it is enough to adhere to the planting schemes recommended for cultivated potato varieties and pull out weeds in a timely manner. You should not place the beds near the lawn, plantings of perennial grasses, or an uncultivated plot of land from which the wireworm can move onto the potatoes.
6. Timely irrigation of potato plantings during dry seasons. Damage to tubers by the pest occurs especially actively at a time when there is not enough moisture in the soil. Varieties with a long growing season are most susceptible to its attacks. In this case, abundant watering of potatoes will preserve a larger amount of the crop.
7. Practice of mixed plantings. On small areas of personal plots, when it is impossible to ensure crop rotation, a good result in the fight against wireworm is obtained by growing potatoes together with plants of the legume family, which are planted at the same time as the tubers. They provide plant protection for the entire growing season.

Planting potatoes affected by wireworm is absolutely safe in terms of the spread of the pest. It lives and winters in the soil, but is not found in tubers. However, such planting material can be more susceptible to fungal and bacterial diseases than others, so even if you treat it with a solution of potassium permanganate or fungicidal compounds before planting, there is a high risk of diseases appearing. To get a good harvest, you need to plant completely healthy tubers.

Chemicals and preparations against pests

The most effective way to combat wireworms is the use of synthetic insecticides. Today, quite a lot of products have been developed that can be used in the household. For example, you can destroy wireworms in potato beds using the following drugs:

1. Prestige. This effective product is produced in concentrated form in bottles of 15 and 60 ml. They can be used to process both tubers and potato seedlings. Potatoes are sprayed with a solution of the drug shortly before planting or right during planting, allow it to dry a little and immediately lower it into the prepared holes. The duration of the drug is 1.5 months, after which it disintegrates and does not enter the developing tubers.
2. Provotox. This is a highly effective, specialized anti-wireworm product designed specifically to kill this pest. Its effect is due to the fact that the chemicals contained in its composition affect the nervous system of the larvae. Provotox is sold in small convenient packages of 40 and 120 g. Its advantages over other insecticides of similar action: reasonable price, non-toxic, environmentally friendly (does not pollute groundwater), non-addictive to pests, fast decay time.
3. Bazudin. This product is also designed to treat potatoes against wireworms before planting. It is available in powder form in small packages of 30 grams. It needs to be mixed with sand (1 to 4) and added to the holes when planting potatoes. The insecticide begins to act the very next day after application and works effectively for 1.5 months.

By using these effective remedies against wireworms already at the stage of planting tubers, you can be sure that the potatoes will be reliably protected and the crop will not be damaged.

Biological drugs

Good protection of potatoes from wireworms on personal plots is provided by the use of biological products. Their undeniable advantage is complete safety for humans, animals, bees and earthworms. After application, they work for a long time and do not harm beneficial soil microorganisms. The effectiveness of plant protection when using such preparations is quite high.

The most famous remedy among gardeners is the drug Nemabact. This bioinsecticide ensures the death of wireworm larvae, as well as a number of other pests, including, for example, the Colorado potato beetle. The product is a symbiosis of an entomopathogenic nematode with a bacterium, which, working in pairs, destroy garden pests.

Once in warm and moist soil, the worms actively reproduce and look for food. Penetrating into the wireworm larvae along with the food, the nematode and bacteria eat it away from the inside. In the absence of pests and in winter, nematodes become inactive. After settling them in the garden bed, the protective effect of the drug lasts 2-3 years.

Folk remedies

Unlike agrochemicals, folk remedies for wireworms are completely safe for the plants being processed and nearby, soil microorganisms, animals and humans. Naturally, they are not as effective as chemicals, but their use is fully justified in areas that are not heavily infested with pests.

Infusions of:

• 0.5 kg of nettle;
• 0.1 kg of celandine;
• 0.2 kg coltsfoot;
• 0.2 kg dandelion.

All herbs, except celandine, are infused in 10 liters of water for 0.5 days, celandine - 3 days. Water the holes before planting and 2 more times for already growing potato bushes (after 1-1.5 weeks). Mustard powder, onion peels, pine needles, and crushed eggshells have a good effect. One of these products must be poured into the holes when planting tubers in them.

You can plant calendula or marigolds next to potato bushes: the pest does not like these plants.

To combat wireworms on potatoes, you can use baits and traps, for example:

1. A couple of weeks before planting the tubers, sow them in the beds where potatoes, corn or barley will grow, but not in continuous sowing, but in nests of ten grains in each. When they sprout, pests will flock to them, since in addition to potatoes, they also eat these crops. After some time, the plants need to be dug up along with the roots, on which the wireworms will be located.
2. Spread a film over the area and pour thick syrup over it. Click beetles will flock to the treat, which will need to be collected and destroyed.
3. In the spring, even before planting potatoes, dig small holes in the soil, put wet straw, hay, dry grass in them and cover everything on top with fragments of slate or boards. After 1-2 days, you need to check the traps and burn the grass along with the larvae.
4. Cut several potatoes into pieces, put them on thin sticks, then dig them into the ground with the potatoes facing down. Every 2 days you need to dig them up, remove the larvae and bury the potato pieces back.
5. Dig several cans into the ground up to the necks. Throw pieces of potatoes, carrots, and beets at the bottom. Both larvae and adults will be caught inside.

Making and maintaining baits and traps takes some time and effort, but, nevertheless, is one of the most effective ways to destroy this dangerous potato pest.

Expert opinion

Maria Vlasova

Gardener

Ask a question to an expert

You can get rid of the annoying wireworm on your site using chemical and biological preparations, baits, traps and agricultural techniques. As you can see, there are enough means of struggle. You just need to choose the most suitable one and use it.