How to deal with wireworms on potatoes

During the growing process when harvesting, many people face the fact that among root crops there are many that are cut through the back doors. Experienced gardeners are familiar with this problem and are well aware that this is the result of the presence of a wireworm in the soil that loves vegetables.Those gardeners who have been planting vegetables on their homestead for more than a year are already familiar with how to deal with wireworms on potatoes, and have long been taking active measures to combat it in the spring and autumn in order to destroy the pest in a short time and save their crops.

Content
  1. Chemistry against wireworm
  2. Home-made chemical solutions
  3. Folk remedies against wireworms
  4. Herbs
  5. Shells
  6. Ammonia
  7. Potassium
  8. Mechanical methods
  9. Traps
  10. Poisoned seeds
  11. Agrotechnical measures
  12. Limestone <
  13. Crop rotation <
  14. Weeding
  15. Digging the earth
  16. Biological measures
  17. Crops <
  18. Attraction of birds

Борьба с проволочником на картофеле

Control of wireworm on potatoes

Chemistry against wireworm

Insecticides are the most effective way to deal with the pest that are designed to omoschyu them in spring treat the tubers of wireworms in potatoes before planting.When using poison for planting material, potato root crops can be protected from the nutcracker, Colorado potato beetle, bear, crab and plant diseases for a long period of time up to two months.

Gardeners do not recommend treating early potato varieties with insecticides drugs. This method of controlling wireworms on potatoes with early ripening does not bring much benefit. The reduced ripening period of their root crops does not allow a decrease in the concentration of the chemical substance in them, and as a result, the chemical enters the ripened vegetables.

Varieties with medium and late ripening are usually processed using such chemical insecticides funds from wireworms on potatoes like Prestige, Commander, Taboo, which also create protection and allow you to get rid of the Colorado potato beetle.

Home-made chemical solutions

According to the advice of experienced gardeners, many adapted make combinations using chemical components that the wireworm does not like, making their own preparations with them.Among the most commonly used processing agents, in order to get rid of wireworm on potatoes as efficiently as possible before planting, a superphosphate-based working solution:

  • 5 kg of granular superphosphate is scattered on a film coating with a thin layer,
  • one of the proposed active ingredients in the prescribed dosage is taken: 0.4 ml of Decis, or 1 ml of Karate, or 15 ml of Actellik or 2 ml of Fastak,
  • the selected chemical is diluted with aqueous acetone liquid which is prepared in a proportion of 800 ml per 200 ml, respectively,
  • the resulting composition with the active component is sprayed onto superphosphate and left on the film until it is completely dry.

Soil is sprayed with the treated chemical composition of superphosphate in the garden before planting potato tubers. The prepared quantity is enough to process approximately 100 square meters of cultivated area so that the wireworm does not appear in the potatoes.

Folk remedies against wireworms

Among the methods for controlling wireworms on potatoes, there are folk remedies. It is gardeners who love them and often try to use them so as not to harm the future crop and not spoil the soil with chemicals.

Herbs

Many herbal infusions act as an effective measure against a wireworm:

  • celandine infusion is prepared in a proportion of 100 grams of grass per ten-liter bucket water, keeping it for three days,
  • for infusion from nettle you will need 0.5 kg of grass for the same amount of water, infused for 12 hours,
  • in the extract of dandelion is required 200 grams of grass per 10 liters of water, it is also aged for half a day.

These solutions process the root crops before planting for a week tore up. Gardeners recommend processing seed material before planting every two days. After planting with such herbal infusions with celandine, mustard, nettle and coltsfoot, potato bushes are watered as they grow and develop.

Shell

Яичная скорлупа может помочь

Egg shells can help

Egg shells are effectively used by experienced gardeners as an effective measure in the fight against the nutcracker. On the advice of experienced gardeners, potato tubers are treated with finely chopped eggshells before planting. In addition, eggshells can be laid in the hole immediately before planting the tuber in the soil.

On the advice of some gardeners, the shell of eggs can be replaced with husks of onions or garlic, which is no less effective measure of how to get rid of wireworms on potatoes. Many sprinkle holes with mustard.

In addition, there are some summer residents who, in addition to taking measures to get rid of wireworms in potatoes, like to lay chopped eggshells and sprinkle with mustard all over the area of ​​the land on which the potato crop is grown.

Ammonia

Ammonium sulfate, or is there another similar effective means than can be used to control wire on potatoes, ammonium nitrate, are often used as folk methods that can destroy in the fader. They contain the active component ammonia. It acts as a reliable deterrent for the larvae of the beetle nutcracker, forcing it to dig deep into the soil, leaving it without food, which leads to the death of the insect. The calculation of the use of drugs is about 20-30 grams per one square of the sown area.

Potassium

One of the most effective alternative methods in the fight against wireworm on potatoes is manganese, or permanganate potassium, which is watered a hole in the soil immediately before planting. The solution with potassium is also used in the process of growing potato crops in the processing of adult bushes.The proportions for the working fluid for processing tubers before planting and in the process of developing a vegetable crop are 2-4 g of potassium permanganate powder per ten-liter bucket of water.

Mechanical methods

When growing a vegetable crops on a small area, and not in conditions of industrial agricultural production on the field, there are labor-intensive, but no less effective methods of control that gardeners resort to using mechanical means to collect its larvae.

Traps

Among the mechanical arodnyh measures against wireworms beetle – specially prepared to trap the worm made from potato tuber that can deal with the pest of the crop. To this end, root crops traps without eyes are soaked in an insecticidal agent for one day. For 3-4 days before planting potatoes, traps from the processed vegetable for the wireworm are buried in the supposed place of a large accumulation of the worm. After the lapse of time (usually two to three days are enough for this), such an insecticidal tuber of the potato affected by the wireworm is dug up, the trap is cleared of larvae or simply burned. The procedure of the mechanical method of combating traps is repeated as often as possible throughout the entire gardening season.

Poisoned seeds

As a mechanical measure to control wireworms on potatoes, planting poisoned corn, wheat or oat seeds before planting a vegetable crop is suitable. Natural poison is planted about a couple of weeks before planting tubers. After two weeks, seedlings on the sowing field are dug up together with the larvae of the beetle-nutcracker located on their roots and burned. Only after such cleaning, the sowing potatoes are already planted in the soil.

Agricultural measures

От вредителя можно избавиться

The pest can be disposed of

Timely taken agrotechnical measures before planting potatoes allow preserving the future crop.

Liming

The larvae of the nutcracker beetle prefer high-acid soil soils, therefore, one of the ways to get rid of wireworms is to maintain the acidity of the earth at the proper level. Regular liming of soil with the addition of ash, lime and chalk becomes a real natural enemy of the pest.

Determine that the soil has elevated acidity, allow plants that act as indicators.If horsetail and sorrel with plantain feel favorably in your garden, this is an occasion for taking measures against high acidity and producing soil soil.

It helps well as a means to combat wireworm dolomite flour, which is introduced one-time with an interval of 3-4 years. Regular cultivation of the land allows you to remove the pest from the suburban area.

Crop rotation

The wireworm usually does not affect the crops planted on the plot only for the first year, therefore the most important measure in the fight against the pest, which allows to protect the future crop, is the annual change of crops in the beds. Correct crop rotation will allow you to fight not only with the nutcracker, but also with the Colorado potato beetle.

Weeding

Burdos and wheatgrass that attract the wireworm to potato bushes become a contributing factor to the spread of the pest. Regular weeding of beds and their timely cleaning of weeds will slow down the process of rapid reproduction of larvae.

Digging the ground

At the end of the gardening season in the autumn, experienced gardeners seek not only to remove all the tubers in the garden, but digging the ground as thoroughly as possible, doing it as deep as possible, lifting up individual soil layers lying at a fairly large distance from the surface.This is done so that the worm larvae get to the surface of the soil and die in the fall during the onset of frost.

It is recommended to dig at a shallow depth when the pre-planting digging of the earth occurs in the spring, and the wireworm larvae caught in the eyes should be removed in a timely manner rather than to bury in the depths of soil.

Biological measures

As a biological measure to control the wireworm, to destroy the pest, gardeners often seek to plant garden plants in the garden that about He doesn’t tolerate, and also use the services of the natural enemies of the nutcracker beetle.

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Crops

Some experienced gardeners noticed that the wireworm loves salad roots, therefore, to preserve the potato crop, varieties of salads are often planted between ridges, so that subsequently with roots and roots located on them with wireworm larvae to tear out a pest from soil.

Instead of attracting the pest plants, you can protect the potato crop using crops from crops that have a deterrent effect for it:

  • siderates, which release a persistent smell of essential oils when they rot, repel the pest from potato root vegetables, among the most unpleasant for beetle larvae – the sidecracker nutcracker – mustard, buckwheat, sweet clover flowers, colza and rape, siderata crops are planted on ridges in the autumn when the potato harvest is harvested, or before planting potatoes in the spring, grown to 10 cm tall the sidehenia shade mows and mixes with soil.
  • horticultural crops – marigolds and dahlias that scare away larvae with their smell,
  • legumes (beans, peas and beans) – these were planted during spring garden crops will create protection for the future potato harvest and at the same time enrich the soil with the nitrogen component necessary at the growth stage and during the development of potato bushes.

Attraction of birds

Creation of favorable conditions for birds on a personal plot during spring allows to attract birds, which are natural enemies of the wireworm. They eat the nutcracker and its larvae. Among birds that feed on wireworms are starlings and rooks, wagtails and blackbirds.

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Anna Evans

Author ✓ Farmer

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