May 28, 2011 - Dirty Little Buggers



I just pulled out all of my turnips and threw them in the compost. Why? Because the soil in my garden is infested with wireworms. If you don't know what wireworms are, be glad.....be very, very glad.

Wireworms are the larvae of the Click beetle. They are slender, elongate, cylindrical or somewhat flattened, and relatively hard-shelled for larvae—bearing resemblance to common mealworms. Although some species complete their development in one year, wireworms usually spend three or four years in the soil, feeding on decaying vegetation and the roots of plants, and often causing damage to agricultural crops such as potato, strawberry, corn, and wheat. The subterranean habits of wireworms, their ability to quickly locate food by following carbon dioxide gradients produced by plant material in the soil, and their remarkable ability to recover from illness induced by insecticide exposure (sometimes after many months), make it hard to exterminate them once they have begun to attack a crop. Wireworms can pass easily through the soil on account of their shape and their propensity for following pre-existing burrows, and can travel from plant to plant, thus injuring the roots of multiple plants within a short time.

I have always had a wireworm infestation at this property. They are often problematic in gardens where sod has recently been removed. It's all but impossible to get rid of them, now that the strong insecticides of years past have been banned for the home garden.

In my garden, the crops that seem to suffer the most damage are radishes and turnips. Occasionally I'll find some minor damage to carrots and potatoes, but so far it hasn't been severe. I have lost a few plants (one broccoli and several lettuce plants) that I suspect had their roots consumed by wireworms. As the plants began wilting, I pulled them and checked the roots. They were almost nonexistent, and there were wireworms in the surrounding soil.


These wireworms were all found in a cluster in the soil after pulling just one small turnip. They are about one inch in length and very hard, which is probably why they are called "wire" worms.


Wireworm damage on a small turnip root.


The damage goes deep. Every turnip I checked had major damage, leaving them inedible.

33 comments:

  1. Grow a cover crop of flax, buckwheat or white mustard, all of which act as a deterrent to wireworms.
    Impale a chunk of raw potato on a stick and bury the potato with the stick poking out of the ground. Create several traps in rows in your garden. Pull the traps out every couple of days and discard the wireworms. Replace the traps with fresh potatoes as necessary. I hope you get relief from those worms.

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  2. Nancy, cover crops aren't really feasible. The vegetable beds are in use right up until killing frost, and by then we are 1200 miles away in Arizona.

    I have tried the potato trick, but with only a couple of chunks of potato, and it didn't work. I'm thinking I should try it with the bits of turnip that were just pulled, as that seems to be the thing they love most.

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  3. Nancy, I didn't recognize you by "Nancy"! LOL, I happened to notice your picture just as I hit "publish". What I need are some of your chickens!!!!

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  4. Granny, It's always something! I have had more buggy problems this year from all the darn rain! I have never had wire worms...that's one more bug that I don't need!

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  5. I my gosh, they sound like the true devil of organic gardening. I really hope they don't get stronger. That would be very upsetting.

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  6. I have had them also go after my onions. Just planted alot of onions today and didn't see a one. I usually sprinkle a granular on the ground and mix it in before I plant root vegetables. I didn't have any and don't remember what it is called but it is also good for cut worms.

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  7. Jody, that they are. I think I've seen more this year than ever. I thought there would be fewer, as this is the third year after removing the sod.

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    Wilderness, I found wireworm damage in one of my Walla Walla sweet onions. I sure hope they don't ruin the entire crop :-(

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  8. I've always found a wireworm or two in my garden beds, but I've never been horribly infested with them. A little damage here and there, but never taking down a crop. I even found one in my soil here. And this soil is so sterile. I'm so used to finding things in the soil when I dig, but so far in the whole garden I've found one wireworm and one Japanese beetle grub. I'm sure I'll have more next year.

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  9. Sorry about your crop Granny! Eww! I've never seen those before. I guess I had better pay more attention cause I'm sure they're there.

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  10. Yuck! Those worms are going to pop in my dreams now! I have not seen such worms in my garden and am sure glad for it! They sound really nasty and de-moralizing for the gardeners!! So what can you plant in that area? Does any veggies survive those worms?

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  11. Could you grow your root veggies in a container or raised bed? Would that make any difference?

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  12. Daphne, this is the worst infestation I've ever had with them.

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    Holly, I hope you never get them!

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    Random, They mainly bother root crops, and in past years they haven't done a lot of damage. They're just worse this year than ever before.

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    Langela, those were from one of the raised beds. Sterile potting soil in containers would work, as long as they didn't set on my own soil, but that would be practically impossible to accomplish.

    We sit right in the middle of potato raising country, and I wonder if the strong insecticides they use commercially just drive all the worms and insects to our home gardens. Just a few years ago I didn't have all the problems with bugs and worms that we do now.

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  13. blech! Never seen those here.. hope I never do!

    Hugs to you!

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  14. I am sorry about your worm problem, but those things sound pretty nasty and hard to get rid of. Good luck doing battle.

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  15. Wendy & Kris, the photo actually makes them look more menacing than they are in real life. There are five of them in the bottom of the smallest Dixie cup, they're barely an inch long. On most vegetables the damage can be easily cut away, leaving plenty for human consumption. I've never seen so much damage as there was on the turnips.

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  16. I found some wireworms in my compost bins a while back, and it seems they're always in abundance around here...

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  17. EG, don't you just hate those creepy crawly wireworms? They don't even pop or squish when you try to smash 'em! Sow bugs, on the other hand......LOL!

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  18. When we lived in central Washington - surrounded by large commercial agricultural fields - we had a heck of a time with potato beetles because the commercial farms sprayed everything to death and we were an oasis of organic farming... the bugs zeroed in on us as easy prey. I could not grow a potato patch if my life depended on it there because of the horrendous infestations of colorado potato beetles. I am sure your speculation about the spraying driving them to your garden is not far off the mark.

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  19. Oh, I believe it, Kitsap. I have pictures to prove I used to grow lovely beets, with pristine leaves! On the other hand, just a few years ago, I had Colorado potato beetles and tomato horn worms....I haven't seen either one for a long time.

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  20. So sorry about your turnip crop. I've spotted a few of those nasty worms in the soil before but I haven't had a huge problem with them. I hope I never do.

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  21. That's a new one for me, thanks for the education!

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  22. We have wire worms too but I've never seen any in my containers. I think containers would work even if they touch the ground. I don't think the wire worms would easily find the drainage holes. Anyway, it would be a good experiment to try on a small scale.

    Also, as the soil warms up in the spring, I see fewer wire worms in the upper layers, how about you? Have you tried an August planted crop for fall?

    Finally, consider whether what you are seeing on the turnips is actually cabbage fly maggot damage. That is a much more notorious pest for turnips and the maggots themselves are small and hard to see in the root. Try covering your crop with reemay/floating row covers one year with all the edges dug under. You might be pleasantly surprised at the perfect roots you get.

    Pesticides/herbicides kill the natural predators of crop pests, allowing pest populations to temporarily boom out of control once spraying is stopped. Certain soil nematodes kill wire worms.

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  23. Cathy, it was definitely wireworm damage. The five I show in the cup were still clinging to the turnips. Studies on nematodes killing wireworms has been inconclusive. Some earlier studies had some positive results that couldn't be duplicated in later trials. I haven't used pesticides or chemicals on my vegetable gardens since the 70s! I'm not sure where you got the idea that I do use them.

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  24. No, I meant that the spraying of the agricultural fields around you might imbalance the predator-prey numbers making your problem worse. I didn't think you used them.

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  25. Cathy, oh...OK, I misunderstood you! Yes, I definitely agree. What pests they don't kill manage to relocate to the organic gardens, too.

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