[m1ckz]

how do i treat wireworm ,, my spuds are full of it

[mobilekat]

Is it a new plot?

They tend to be a farmland/ grass problem, and after about 4-5 years of regular soil cultivation they die out.
I was always taught to remove anything 'insect-like' out of the soil when digging (my Grand-dads technique)- but obviously not worms, as very few good things look like a wireworm

You can either avoid planting spuds until you have cultivated the hell out of the little blighters, or use the right kind of nematodes to attack them.
People do sometimes use spuds to attract them and then kill them.

There is not really any chemicals that work on them, so dig and squish is you best technique (with a bit of swearing!)

[mumofstig]

Here's a thread with lots of info about wireworm, and how Sunshineband's plan to get rid of them 

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=53907.msg640816#msg640816

[m1ckz]

its a council allotment,,my 3rd year  , has been ok till now,,first time ive put potatos there  ty

[m1ckz]

i was told they dont like lime

[JayG]

i was told they dont like lime

............unfortunately, neither do spuds (causes scab) 

[Rampant_Weasel]

how do i treat wireworm ,, my spuds are full of it

chimney soot, keeps everything off, zero damaged spuds.didnt believe it til i tried it

[lizziesdad]

I lost two sacks of spuds to wireworm last year - my first year on the allotment. They were lovely sized spuds but were riddled with them. An old hand on my site told me I had left them in the ground too long - I dug them in mid-August. I dug my Earlies (Foremost) in June and they were all fine - no wireworm. This year I rotated my planting and I have virtually no wireworm damage at all. I dug the earlies three weeks ago ( too wet to dig earlier) and my main crop today ( King Eds, Kerr's Pink and Majestic). My plot was briars, weeds and grass and hadn't been properly dug for five years. I've read that wireworm don't like to be disturbed and they don't like digging. I dug for all I was worth as there is no treatment for them. They also come into their own in August. I kept having a little furtle in the past few weeks and found very little damage.
Dig, dig, dig!

[m1ckz]

sounds like a plan    will try it,,as for the lime.tatties wont be in the part i lime,i can put brassicas in there ,,hows that

[Salmo]

Wireworms are the lavae of the click beetle. The click beetle is so called because if you put it on its back it will lay still and all of a sudden there is a click as it flicks its body a foot in the air.

It lays its eggs on grass and the lavae can live up to 4 years before turning into a beetle. The wireworms can be up to 2 inches long but if they are mostly that size the good news is that they will probably not be there next year.

If your veg patch has been cultivated for several years and there are still wireworms the beetles could be laying their eggs on couch grass or an unkempt grass path.

One way to test for them is to insert a few carrots for a couple of weeks and then see if they have holes.