To help the gardener. How to deal with a wireworm in the garden?

Before we tell you how to deal with the wireworm in the garden, let's figure out what is this, in fact, an insect is? So, this is the name of small and large larvae of future beetles. The wireworm is a small worm (2 cm long) of yellow or light brown color, destructively destroying our harvest (for example, potatoes).

Life Cycle and Habitat

The cycle of development of wireworm lasts for 5 years. In the first year, small light brown larvae appear, in the second and third years they grow, increasing in size, and the fourth become pupae. The last three weeks later turn into full-fledged beetles. The fifth year of life of this pest is commemorated by the laying of new eggs.

The wireworm in the garden chooses sour and moist soil, dense plantings and weeds that have not been removed in a timely manner. Can not tolerate thickets of legumes: peas, beans, beans.

"Combat unit"

Before we tell you how to deal with a wireworm in the garden, I would like to make a small reservation. Remember! Larvae of the wireworm exist together with pupae and adult beetles! This is a full-fledged "fighting unit": small and large larvae, pupae and, properly speaking, click beetles.

How to get a wireworm from the garden?

It will not be easy to do, but it is possible! Remember that the fight against this pest occurs in two ways: agrotechnical and chemical.

How to deal with a wireworm in the garden? Agrotechnical methods

1. Weeding is necessary (first of all wheat grass).
2. It is necessary to limy and phosphate the soil, but this should not be done before planting the potatoes. Otherwise, it will affect the quality of future tubers.
3. Do not forget about the obligatory cultivation of the soil: presowing, inter-row and autumn.
4. Strictly observe all crop rotations! Plant one-year legumes before potatoes and roots. Of course, this should be done when the wireworm in your garden really got wound up.
5. Use special traps and baits. They can be made from pieces of the same potatoes. Stick the twigs in them and bury them in the soil for 12 cm. After a couple of days, examine the traps, destroying all the wireworms gathered in them. Then update the cut, sprinkle it with water and bury it to the same depth, but already in another place.

How to deal with a wireworm in the garden? Chemical methods

1. Before sowing root crops and planting potatoes, add fertilizers containing ammonium to the soil.
2. Water the soil with a weak manganese solution.
3. Use the insecticide "Bazudin" ("Diazinon"). Proceed from the following dosage: 40 g per square meter of soil. This is a great option for dealing with wireworms in the event that the pest has seized all of your garden.

And finally

It should be noted that chemical methods are much simpler than agrotechnical methods, however, it is expedient to resort to them only in case of extreme necessity due to their toxicity (for example, the drug "Diazinon" is toxic to humans and animals). That is why, if the number of wireworms in your garden is relatively small, be limited to agrotechnical methods! Good luck!