I have wireworms ruining my radishes. I am pulling them all and tossing them on the blacktop driveway until they dry out (like later this week when it is 85 ) to put in the garbage compost pile. Is there any help or ideas to get rid of what is already or still left in the garden? I see little maggoty things in the roots, too. Are these the newly emerging wireworm or something else? any ideas?
First thing I found: Ortho® Bug-B-Gon MAX® Insect Killer Granules For Lawns Vegetable Gardens: A single application may be applied just prior to the planting or after plants emerge and worked into the top 4 to 6 inches of soil. Use 1 lb of product for a 500 sq ft. area Yuk! I will go look some more. Here: Wireworms also infect carrots/radish and I have trialed and suggested the following to gardeners dealing with that problem and they report success. Dig planting row. Heavily spread dried molasses (or granulated sugar can be used) down the row. Then spread even handfuls of cheap, fresh, UNCOOKED coffee grounds on top of the sugar. Do not stir to incorporate. Plant potatoes or radishes. When you do your first raking in of soil around the potato growth work in handfuls of the dried molasses for extra insurance.
Oh Barb, That is a cool remedy. I will look for molasses at the mill. I hope they have it there. And I have coffee. cheep, smelly coffee that we aren't drinking and it should work fine. I will try it.
Interesting thread, this. We have those things here. Thankfully I do not encounter many. It is the larvae of what we call something that would translate into "click beetle". I was entertained for hours by these when I was a child, but now I take a dimmer view of their presence.
S, That is what we call them also and they were fun as children . If we knew how destructive they were we would have smashed everyone of them, huh?
