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  • From: Miranda Smith <MirandaS AT creativehomeowner.com>
  • To: 'market farming' <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: wireworms
  • Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 16:52:42 -0400


Nancy,

Also, if you ever plant potatoes in an area where sod grew the year
before, go buy a couple of 50-pound sacks of commercial potatoes. Cut them
in pieces and lay the cut sides down on the tilled soil. (This is before you
plant and you need to wait until the soil is warm enough so that the larvae
are active, so it requires you plant the spuds a bit late.) Wireworms will
migrate to the potatoes and infest them. After a few days to a week at most,
pick up the potatoes and throw them out or put them in a reliably hot
compost pile. This might not get rid of every single one, but it does get
rid of a bunch of them.

Miranda Smith

> ----------
> From: Alex McGregor
> Reply To: market farming
> Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2000 9:52 PM
> To: market farming
> Subject: Re: wireworms
>
> Nancy,
>
> Wireworms are the larval form of clicK beetles. Click beetles lay their
> eggs in sod
> where there's plenty of food for their babies- wireworms eat roots. It's
> no wonder you
> have them in a newly tilled area. Cultivation will get rid of them.
>
> Too late now, but next time, plant something that root feeders won't
> damage in newly
> tilled areas. The click beetles won't lay eggs in a cultivated area, so
> it should be
> "wireworm-less" after this season. (Assuming you keep the area clean of
> weeds and grass
> this summer.) Plant a non-grass cover this Fall and you should not see
> any (or very
> many) wireworms next season.
>
> Alex McGregor
> Walden Farm
>
> Nancy Haycock wrote:
>
> > I just discovered that I've got wireworms in my potato beds. These are
> > newly tilled beds -- formerly hay fields, so the sod was very fibrous
> > and thick. The potatoes have been doing very well -- looking nice dark
> > green and healthy. Then, last week, I got my first Colorado Potato bugs
> > and flea beetles, and now these wireworms!
> > This is my first year of growing potatoes. Does anyone have any advice
> > to offer me?
>
>
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  • wireworms, Nancy Haycock, 06/29/2000
    • <Possible follow-up(s)>
    • Re: wireworms, Alex McGregor, 06/29/2000
    • RE: wireworms, Miranda Smith, 06/29/2000

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