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Sometimes, when harvesting potatoes, one has to see numerous passages in the tubers. It happens that a yellow worm sticks out of such a move. All this is the malicious work of the wireworm. This pest causes damage to many garden crops. In addition to potatoes, it can damage carrots, beets and other root crops, eat up the roots of young plants, which leads to their death. Therefore, it must be fought.
What is a wireworm
This is not an independent insect, but an intermediate, larval stage of the existence of the click beetle. Only now it lasts unusually long, in many individuals up to 4 years. The click beetle is up to 2 cm in size, and the color is dark brown or dark purple.
It depends on the composition of the soil and living conditions. The beetle itself does not bring much harm to agricultural crops. What can not be said about its larvae.
Beetle larvae lay in early spring. In the first year, the larvae are small and do not differ in mobility. But from the second year on, their activity, and, hence, their harmful activity, increases significantly.
Wireworms are able to move quickly in the soil, choosing places where there is enough food for them. It is especially good for them where it is humid and the acidity of the soil is increased. They love to live where wheatgrass grows.
Destroy wheatgrass in the area so as not to create conditions for the habitat of this harmful worm.
This dangerous pest needs to be dealt with.
Wireworm Control Measures
There are many ways to deal with this pest. Even before planting the main crop, insecticide-treated grain or bait can be laid out. The wireworm, eating them, dies. Crop rotation helps a lot. The wireworm does not consume food that is new to it, so plants that are not familiar to it do little damage.
Siderats, which are sown after harvesting, help fight the wireworm. Mustard, colza, rapeseed are best suited. Siderats need to be buried in the ground. The essential oils released during their decay repel the pest. If you constantly add ground eggshells to the soil, the pest population can be significantly reduced.
If you spill holes of nettle tincture (500 g per ten-liter bucket) or dandelion (200 g per ten-liter bucket) before planting, this will protect young roots from damage by wireworms.
But there are times when all these measures are not enough. Then you have to resort to chemicals. There are not so many insecticides from the wireworm. Most of them are based on diazinon, which belongs to the class of organophosphate insecticides. Diazinon was developed more than half a century ago by the Swiss company Siba Geigi. For a long time, this insecticide was used to control domestic insects. One of the substances based on diazinon is Provotox from the wireworm.
Insecticide Provotox: description
The content of the active substance in this agent from the wireworm is 40 g per kilogram. The drug is available in the form of granules. The weight of one sachet can be 120 or 40 g. For application per 10 sq. m. one sachet per 40 g is enough. The drug cannot be combined with other drugs. You can store it for 2 years.
Action Provotox
The active substance of the drug is a contact-intestinal poison. When ingested, the wireworm damages its nervous system, causing paralysis and death. It is necessary to apply the drug once by evenly scattering over the garden. The instruction says that the drug must be lightly embedded in the soil.
It is also possible to add the drug directly to the wells when planting potatoes. Each bush will require only 2 to 4 pieces of granules.
Reviews of the use of the drug Provotox from the wireworm indicate a significant decrease in the number of wireworms.
The usual time for application is spring. If the number of the pest is large, it is possible to incorporate the drug into the soil after harvesting. For processing choose a calm day. It should be done either in the morning or in the evening.
The protective effect of the drug lasts 6 weeks.
Drug toxicity and safety measures
Provotox belongs to drugs of the 3rd hazard class. Those. it is not dangerous to humans. Diazinon, on the basis of which Provotox was created, decomposes rather quickly in the soil.
Safety measures when working with Provotox consist of the use of a protective suit, respirator and gloves. Do not eat or smoke during treatment. After treatment, you need to change clothes, wash.
Advantages of Provotox:
- Does not have phytotoxicity.
- It has a long duration.
- Does not cause addiction in insects.
- Moderately dangerous to warm-blooded animals.
So that the wireworm does not damage potatoes, root crops and flowers, it is necessary to carry out a complex fight with it, using both folk and chemical methods.