Control measures for the click beetle and its wireworm larva in the garden
With the arrival of spring, all summer residents begin to puzzle over the same problem: how to protect the future harvest of potatoes, carrots, sugar beets, onions from the click beetle and, most importantly, from its wireworm larva. And this is a significant reason to worry, because if you do not "extinguish" the outbreak of an insect pest in time, you can even lose your crop. The fact is that the scale of the catastrophic drop in vegetable production affected by the wireworm is comparable only to the losses from the invasion Colorado potato beetle... However, it is possible to cope with an uninvited guest with a little blood. The main thing here is to start the struggle on time, without delay, creating unbearable conditions for his existence.
Next, you will learn about how to get rid of the wireworm, what are the effective measures to prevent and combat this dangerous pest.
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Who is a wireworm (click beetle larva): what it looks like and what is dangerous
Wireworms are the larvae of the click beetle (also sometimes called the snake beetle). This beetle got this name due to the fact that if you catch it and turn it on its back, and then slightly touch it with your finger or a twig, then it begins to make sounds similar to clicks. The beetle is practically not dangerous, unlike its larva, the life span of which can reach 3-4 years.
What the clicker beetle and its wireworm larva look like, you can see in the photo below:
The life cycle of the click beetle and its wireworm larva consists of the following developmental stages:
- With the onset of warmth, around the end of April, the streak beetles begin to wake up and come to life, which previously hibernated in the ground at a depth of about 20 centimeters.
- The adults mate and the females begin to lay eggs (up to 200 eggs), of which tiny larvae (3-4 mm) emerge after 3-4 weeks.
- To satisfy hunger and gain weight, the larvae begin their race in the soil in search of food, eating up and destroying the thin roots of weeds. Therefore, it should not be allowed overgrowth of weeds in the garden.
- The next year, the larvae grow up to 12-15 mm, and their bodies become more rigid.
- At the age of 3 years, they become very tough (hence the name - wireworms) and can already penetrate root crops, gnawing passages into them.
- The larvae pupate and develop into adult click beetles.
What root crops are not damaged by this underground pest: potatoes, carrot (although, as a rule, these are the larvae of the carrot fly), beets, onion... In addition, he can even eat up young seedlings. ate.
Presowing treatment or prevention of the appearance of a wireworm in the garden
In general, the appearance of a wireworm in potatoes can be prevented if in advanceproperly prepare and pickle its tubers.
Birch tar, potassium permanganate and mustard powder
One way of such prevention is treatment of potato tubers with birch tar. Before planting, the tubers should be briefly dipped in a solution of birch tar (cooking recipe: 1 tablespoon of the product per 1 liter of water), and then, as additional protection, shed the planting grooves (or pits) with a less strong solution (dissolve about 1 tablespoon of tar in 5-6 liter watering can).
By the way! The same method is very effective not only in the fight against the wireworm, but also with bear and even mice.
Video: a super way to protect potatoes from wireworms using birch tar
Also you can use potassium permanganate solution (5 g per 10 liter bucket of water) pouring 0.5 liters of solution into each planting hole shortly before planting.
Sufficient efficiency was shown by adding to the well mustard powder along with hot pepper.
Onion peel
Perhaps the most popular and effective remedy against wireworm is the use of onion husks... Just toss a handful into the hole when planting. And potato tubers can be completely soaked in onion broth.
Ways to deal directly with the click beetle
If you want to get rid of the click beetle and thereby prevent the appearance of its wireworm larvae, then here is a proven method for you:
Plastic bottle and beer (beer trap)
To make a mechanical clicker trap, you need to take the most ordinary plastic bottle, cut off the upper part, and insert the cut-off part with the neck back (naturally open the lid). Pour some into the bottom of the trap beer and set in a small hole in the garden. Moreover, it is better to make several such traps, depending on the size of your garden plot.
Advice! To prevent earthen toads and other living creatures from falling into the trap, drill a hole near the neck and insert a nail into it - this will be a kind of limiter.
Video: a simple snare beetle trap (chirping) that will destroy all the wireworm in the area
Folk remedies and methods of dealing with wireworm
There are a fairly large number of ways to deal with the click beetle in the summer cottage. Naturally, the best option is the complex application of several methods at once.
Ammonium alcohol to protect seedlings
A protective solution is prepared as follows: 1-2 tbsp. spoon 10% solution of ammonia (ammonia) for 10 liters of water. Next, you need to water the freshly planted seedlings under the root, without getting on the leaves, and then mulch the holes with earth so that the ammonia does not evaporate for as long as possible and continue to repel pests.
Video: ammonia against wireworm
Siderata
One of the most effective methods for controlling wireworms is sowing siderates. Phacelia, peas and white mustard will perfectly protect your beds from underground pests. Moreover, mustard can be sown before the potatoes, after, or together. And when the mustard grows up, it should be mowed, and you will get a very good plant nutrition.
Decoy traps and other mechanical methods of fighting
Jar and chopped potatoes
Take a half-liter plastic stanchion or even better a glass jar, fill it with small-cut potatoes 2-3 centimeters deep and dig in in the area where the wireworm is most active. Check the jar every few days and eliminate the trapped pest.
Wheat bait
Boil the wheat for 15 minutes so that it has time to boil and then cannot rise. Then cool and add one of the wireworm chemicals to the porridge, for example "Regent" or "Vofatox", or any other insecticide (some of which are suitable and to combat the Colorado potato beetle) "Iskra", "Corado", "Confidor", "Biotlin", "Commander", "Tanrek", "Tabu"... Let it brew for about 24 hours, and at the end of the day, add additional fragrant unrefined sunflower oil. Then scatter the bait over the area and dig up. This bait will act on both the wireworm and bear within 2-3 months.
Digging land on the site
In late autumn (October-November), dig up the beds on the site to a depth of 20-30 centimeters, thereby turning the soil along with the hibernating wireworm, which will simply freeze out at low temperatures. And if you also lower soil acidity by adding during digging dolomite flour, lime or wood ash, then the result will be more than decent, because the wireworm does not tolerate alkaline soil.
Good results in the fight against wireworms are given by applying to the soil ammonium nitrate and potassium chloride, trace elements of which this malicious pest does not tolerate.
In late spring - early summer, when the wireworm larvae have not yet matured and have not appeared, it should be carried out as often as possible loosening the soil, thereby alarming and raising the eggs out, where they will die from the heat.
Weed control
The less food for the pest will be on your site, the less will be its quantity, which means that the garden must be clean - the weeds must be defeated.
Wireworm chemicals
If folk and mechanical means of dealing with a wireworm or a click beetle do not help, and the problem is so serious and large-scale, then you should start using special chemical agents against an underground pest, in other words, insecticides.
As a rule, the following chemical agents against wireworm are most popular with summer residents:
- Cuts;
- Barguzin;
- Provotox;
- Zemlin;
- Bazudin;
- Initiative.
As a rule, the main active ingredient in such agents is the same -diazinon.
By the way! Many tools will help get rid of another soil pest - carrot fly.
As a pre-planting chemical treatment, it is considered very popular and effective "Prestige" and "Matador".
When potato tops appear, you can spill the plantings with a solution from the wireworm"Antikhrusha".
The onset of spring brings with it one painfully familiar problem to all summer residents: the invasion of the malicious pest of the click beetle and its wireworm larva - a real thunderstorm for nightshades, cereals, and aster crops. The whole range of measures of correct agricultural technology, set out above, will help to crush its distribution in the bud.
Video: ways to deal with the wireworm in the garden