Click beetle and wireworm larva, how to fight, remedies

What does a click beetle look like?
Where does the click beetle live?
Reproduction of click beetles and maturation of larvae
How to deal with click beetles and wireworms
Chemicals
Agricultural technology against wireworms Use of traps
Laying out the bait

The nutcracker was nicknamed an acrobat for his ability to jump and flip. The click beetle is an unsightly looking insect, small and harmless. More often found in gardens, fields and vegetable gardens. The threat is posed by the offspring - voracious wireworm larvae. Staying in the larval stage for 4-5 years, they cause significant damage to vegetable and cereal crops.

What does a click beetle look like?

The size of an adult beetle is 1-2 cm. It has an oval-elongated, slightly flattened body, 2/3 of which is occupied by the head with antennae consisting of 11 segments. Females have short mustaches, but the body is wider and longer.

The color of the cover is with black, brown or purple shades. There are beetles with a yellow color or a metallic tint. This is influenced by habitat and soil components. The elytra are covered with a pattern of spots or stripes.

A process is visible on the insect’s chest, which is inserted into a special recess. This process helps the beetle jump with a clicking sound. If you turn a nutcracker onto its back, it will jump up and roll over.

Photo

Below you can see a photo selection showing young and adult larvae, damaged and rotten fruits:

Photo of a young larva

Photo of a mature larva

Adult larva

Group of larvae

Damaged fruit

Where does the click beetle live?

Scientists have studied 12 thousand species of click beetles. Of these, more than 300 species live on the territory of Russia. Common beetles include dusky, steppe and striped click beetles.

Favorite places of settlement are forest, forest-steppe and steppe zones. Beetles prefer heavy clay and loamy soils with high humidity; they like to settle in dense thickets of wheatgrass.

With the beginning of spring and the first green shoots, pests crawl to the surface. In summer they hide under plant debris and clods of earth.

Other click beetles are parreisa, with a body length of 3.5 cm. These beetles are listed in the Red Book of Russia.

Conditions of appearance

Pests appear in garden plots for various reasons. Firstly, it can easily penetrate from neighboring areas and lay eggs. Often the owners themselves are to blame for the appearance of a click beetle on their property. As a rule, few people adhere to agrotechnical rules in garden plots, planting crops in one place every year. This is especially true for potato plantings, since the weight volume of such plantings is always greater compared to other crops. Potatoes have to be planted every year and there is simply nowhere to move the plantings of this crop, considering how much land the gardener has. Even in villages where people have more land, no one seriously thinks about this problem: they planted potatoes in one place and continue to do so from year to year.

Reproduction of click beetles and maturation of larvae

In May-June, females lay eggs under earthen lumps and in cracks. Clutches are found in the roots and stems of plants, among burdocks, or in rotting wood. The clutch contains 5-15 white, small, 0.5 mm eggs, and in 2 months - 150 eggs.

The eggs lie for 1 month, absorbing water and increasing in size. After 20-30 days, the larval worms emerge. “Newborns” are white in color and resemble stiff wire cut into pieces. Therefore, the larvae of the click beetle are called wireworms.

The larvae of the first year of life do not do much harm to garden plants and feed on other food. At this time, their body length is 0.2 cm. By the end of the year they grow to 7 mm and become mobile, light brown in color.

Growing up wireworms gnaw through potato tubers and root crops and gnaw through roots. Some species snack on earthworms, larvae and pupae of other insects.

3-year-old larvae are already 3 cm long, with dense body covering. The hotter and drier the weather, the more voracious the larvae become, with faster maturation times. For the winter, wireworms hide in the soil in warm and moderately humid places. After the 4th winter, in the spring, adult beetles emerge to the surface.

Preventive recommendations

The appearance of a click beetle on a plot of land, like other parasites, is easier to prevent than to deal with pests later.

Useful tips:

fight weeds in a timely manner, they often become the home of many parasites;
observe crop rotation (do not plant one crop in the same place every year, take a break of several years);
dig the soil deeply in autumn and spring;
thin out the potato beds with bean plantings;
A comprehensive fight against it will help eliminate wireworms throughout the garden. Pay attention not only to planting potatoes, but also to other vegetables.

Useful recommendations have a positive effect on the harvest and prevent infection of tubers with click beetles. If parasites still feast on your plantings, use proven methods, immediately after detecting a beetle, begin fighting it. Even one individual can lead to the appearance of an entire colony of pests.

More interesting details about click beetles in the following video:

Chemicals

Garden owners are often against chemical poison, but insecticides give 80-90% results:

1). Prestige solution is poured into the hole before planting seed material - potatoes, flowers and other garden crops. Seedlings and grown plants are sprayed. The substance remains in the soil for 1.5 months.

2). Aktara, in diluted form, is used to water the soil before planting.

3). Seeds, tubers and seedlings are treated with Tabu.

4). Bazudin is used carefully against click beetle larvae - it is a toxic substance harmful to living organisms.

5). Adding potassium chloride to the soil followed by digging. Wireworms will disappear in 2-3 years.

6). Pouring a weak solution of potassium permanganate into the wells.

What crops does the pest affect?

Wireworms damage the seeds and underground parts of many vegetable and ornamental plants.

Potato tubers, dahlias, gladioli, beet roots, carrots, strawberry roots, corn, daffodil bulbs, tulips, and iris rhizomes are subject to their invasion . Wireworms can chew through tomato .

Wireworm in potatoes

Potatoes are the wireworm's favorite vegetable. Together with the Colorado potato beetle, these are the main crop pests. Once settled in a potato plot, wireworms can damage up to 60% of the tubers. Juicy potato roots are also a source of food for beetle larvae. Because of this, nutrition in the bushes is disrupted and the tuber yield is reduced.

Fungi, bacteria and nematodes settle through holes in the pulp. Damaged tissue around the passages turns black, and the tubers become inedible.

Agricultural technology against wireworms

Agrotechnical rules in the garden:

Do not plant annually the same crops that grew here before;
Treat the soil thoroughly and in a timely manner, and use the moldboard method when plowing;
In May-June, when females lay eggs, loosen the rows;
Do not thicken the plantings and remove weeds in a timely manner;
Dig up the area before the onset of autumn cold weather;
Plant legumes more often;
Reduce soil acidity.
Before planting potatoes, sow oats or barley, then harvest;
Fertilize the soil with ammonia-nitrogen fertilizers.

Smell repellent:

add onion peels, mustard powder or a pinch of hot pepper to the holes when planting potatoes, or moisten the tubers with onion decoction;
mix ash, pine resin and humus, add the mixture to the holes;
throw 3-4 beans into the holes;
Click beetles and wireworm larvae do not like the smell of marigolds.

Using traps

If you dig holes in the spring, put last year's grass there, moisten it and cover it, pests will gather there. The bait is burned, and the hole is filled with a new portion of bait. In autumn they are filled with manure.

In another method, 0.5 liter glass jars or plastic containers are dug into the ground, where bait is placed: chopped carrots or potatoes. Check after 2 days.

Laying out the bait

Stick a stick into half a potato and bury it 10 cm so that the cut “looks” down. Check the same after 2 days, collecting larvae. Bury the tuber again, wetting the cut.

2 weeks before planting potatoes, sow oats, barley, corn in the nests, after preliminary swelling of the seeds. Three nests per 1 sq. m. When shoots appear, dig up and destroy the larvae.

Conclusion

If you do not act, then the wireworms will spoil part of the crop or eat it, and this is the labor that is spent on cultivating the plot, sowing and other work. Don't give up and refuse to fight. Reducing the number of larvae is already a success.

How to protect tomatoes from wireworms using biological agents

Such preparations should be used only when the larvae are young, until their body is covered with a protective shell. The best time is early June. There are quite a few drugs that can destroy larvae, but the most popular ones will be written here. These products are absolutely harmless to plants, since after some time they are removed from the plant tissues.

They will not harm the harvest, unless, of course, they are used during the ripening of the fruit. Naturally, do not forget about protective equipment during processing. Biological preparations are most preferable when used in a greenhouse.

Metarizin. This drug contains a special pathogenic fungus that is destructive to insects. It does not need to be used during active growth or the appearance of larvae, but only when you dig up the ground before frost or in the spring, before planting tomatoes. How to prepare the solution: dilute 1 gram of the substance in a liter of water. Tomatoes should be watered after harvesting, spending for every 5 square meters. half a liter of solution;
Nemabact. This drug will help cope with the larvae at the expense of others. The drug contains nematodes, which, when they get on the wireworm’s body, begin to parasitize it. How to prepare: dilute one package in a bucket of water. Enough to process one hundred beds.

Prevention

Autumn digging of the soil reduces the number of pests. The layer of earth is turned over and not broken into clods. In heavily infected areas, it is better to carry out this procedure later, on the eve of frost. Some larvae and adult beetles end up near the surface of the earth and die from low temperatures . In spring and early summer, when eggs are being laid, deep loosening . Detected beetles and their larvae are immediately removed from the ground and destroyed.
Areas overgrown with weeds, especially wheatgrass and thistle, . The pest loves to feed on the roots of these herbs.
The wireworm avoids places where legumes used to grow. This fact is taken into account when planning crop rotation. Beans and peas can be planted in rows around the perimeter of the site. Planting calendula and marigolds . The secretions of these plants discourage the wireworm's appetite.
It is important to monitor the acidity of the soil. At elevated pH levels, lime the soil or add ash (2 liters per 1 m²). This worsens the living conditions of insects.

By carrying out prevention and systematic treatment of the soil with preparations, you can get rid of wireworms on the site in a few years.

More details: you will learn how to deal with wireworms from the video.

Damage caused by insects

Due to the fact that wireworms are polyphagous , they cause enormous damage to cultivated plants. They love to eat tender roots and stems and destroy swollen seeds and shoots.

The larvae cause a lot of damage to root crops and tubers: they drill entire tunnels in them, which leads to rotting and makes the crop unsuitable for storage.

Click beetle larvae cause the greatest harm to potatoes, wheat, radishes, corn, carrots, barley, onions, beets, strawberries, cucumbers, daikon, lettuce, and cabbage.