Valuable tips for dealing with wireworms

Description of the wireworm and its danger

The wireworm is a small orange worm that lives in large numbers in household plots. It affects the fruits of many plants, most often potatoes and carrots, as well as beets, are affected by it. In other words, the wireworm is also the larva of the click beetle, which also harms plants, fruits and vegetables.

Initially, after emergence, the larva poses practically no danger to root crops, but over time they become real garden tyrants, since in order to survive they need to constantly feed on root crops, their juice. They live exclusively in moist soil, and only after several years they become beetles that crawl to the surface. Therefore, during this time, the larvae can destroy tens and hundreds of crops, just to feed themselves.

The wireworm got its name due to the fact that it has a bright mustard, yellow-brown color, which is more reminiscent of copper wire. At the same time, the wireworm larvae are long and thin, and sometimes the gardener, when working the soil, simply does not pay any attention to them. Because of this, it is even easier for them to survive, causing irreparable damage to crops over several seasons.

Wireworm larvae are the same pests as Colorado beetles, which are considered a real misfortune for the modern garden. The parasite is able to rapidly spread over the garden plot, spoil only the planted crops and seeds, or get to the already formed root systems and fruits. Affected tubers of potatoes, radishes or carrots, beets look like they have been pierced from all sides with wires. There are often periods when more than 60% of all harvested fruits are destroyed by the larvae, which, of course, is a rather sad statistics for any professional or novice gardener.

Wireworm: how to get rid of? Effective control methods

Of course, given such consequences when attacked by a wireworm, the question immediately arises: how to deal with the wireworm, what to do to reduce the risks of its occurrence, or at least the impact on root crops and plant systems?

The wireworm is quite difficult to get out, but still there are several ways that can help in this difficult task. The larvae can be fought, for example, by a mechanical method. It is also called agrotechnical, but the essence lies in the fact that it includes the obligatory digging of the entire site in the autumn period after harvest. In this way, the larvae, which had time to hibernate, can be taken out to the surface, and under the influence of low temperatures the wireworm will die very quickly.

As a daily procedure for dealing with the wireworm, you can use the loosening of the soil around the plants - the wireworm does not tolerate this very well, therefore it can either weaken or completely die. The area should be weeded regularly, as well as the area in front of it. As a rule, wireworms concentrate where wheatgrass is actively growing, so removing this and other weeds will allow the wireworm to lose its main food, which will force it to move to other territories.

Another method of dealing with wireworms is chemical. It is quite effective and does not require much physical effort on the part of the gardener, in contrast to the mechanical method.There are several types of chemicals and solutions that will destroy the wireworm:

• Liming acidic soil with common chemicals - the use of fertilizers with a high content of ammonium sulfate, which the wireworm does not like very much, will force it to move to other territories and completely go beyond the infield;
• The use of manganese solution - potassium permanganate is very often used by gardeners for the treatment of seeds and plants. The concentration of potassium permanganate in the solution depends entirely on the size of the site and the degree of its infestation by the wireworm;

• Liming with chalk, bark or shells - low acid soil is not a medium for wireworms to live in and will undoubtedly die or move.