A potato disease can be caused by worms. Thin wiry, hard and shiny worms in the soil around your potato plants could be the wireworm. Learn about this worm and the click beetle.
What is it?
Wireworms are very thin, yellow, pink or orangish worms that feed on potatoes. Wireworms also feed on other plants in the vegetable garden such as lettuce, beans, peas, beets and carrot plants. Although wirewroms can damage large portions of individual potatoes, the undamaged portions of the vegetable are still edible even though you may find them unappetizing after removing the wireworms.
What does it look like?
Wireworms are very shiny garden pests. These insects have hard, jointed bodies which can be a light creamy pink color to shades of yellow and orange. Typically the wireworms are very thin and grow up to approximately 5/8 inch in length. They are rarely found singularly, and more often than not if you see one wireworm you will see several more very close nearby at the infestation site. Damage from wireworm infestation appears in the form of potato plants' growth being stunted or incredibly slowed as compared to normal growth patterns of potato plants. The potato itself may look as if it has had several dark brownish to blak holes punched into it. These are the sites in the tubers which the wireworms have tunneled in and out of to feed. If you have a wireworm infestation in your potato plants or your vegetable garden you will find clusters of wireworms both in the tubers and in the surrounding soil but rarely will you see wireworms above ground because they only feed on underground portions of the potato plants.
How does it manifest?
The adult form of the wireworm is known as a click beetle. The click beetle gets its name because when it moves around going from it's back onto it's feet again, the beetle makes a clicking sound. Larvae of the wireworm can feed for a period of anywhere from two to six years before they become a mature click beetle. This means that damage from these garden pests can occur at any stage of maturity between larvae to mature beetle and you will often find wireworms at various stages of maturity around the same potato plant or garden.
Although wireworms feed predominantly on potato plants, don't forget that your other garden vegetables are at risk as well. If you find wireworm damage in your potato plants and have carrots, corn, peas, beets, or lettuce plants nearby you should also check them for signs of damage before applying insecticide to make sure you don't merely treat one area of the vegetable garden and then have wireworms migrate from other vegetable plants to your potato plants again. Wireworms can tunnel underground from one plant to another, and because they devour only the underground portions of the plants, feeding on tubers, seed potatoes, stems and root systems, you may not know how severe the damage to your garden is unless you are sure to check the soil around plants.
What can you do about it?
Potato wireworm damage should be controlled at the first sign of this garden pest infestation. You can control wireworm populations by using a methoxychlor, diazinon or chlorypyrifos containing insecticide. Always be sure to follow label directions carefully and consistently for the best outcome. You should not merely spray the insecticide on plants since wireworm damage occurs underneath the soil. Instead, you will need to work the chosen insecticide into the soil around your potato plants at least six inches down into the soil, however, for best results you should work the insecticide a full 8 inches down. The following growing season you will want to work the same insecticide into the soil prior to planting. This should eliminate damage from any wireworms which managed to over winter in the soil.
