How do I get rid of wire worm in my raised vegetable garden?

Hi Pam, here are a few suggestions to control wire worm in your garden.

• Try sprinkling Diatomaceous Earth around your plants, it is a natural silica based product that for insects is like crawling over cut glass, it is available in garden centres and hardware stores.
• Cultivate the soil around the plants as wire worm don’t like being disturbed.
• Keep the bed weed free, weeds can be a host to wire worm.
• Dig in generous amounts of compost and sheep pellets or other organic matter before planting as this stimulates beneficial soil microbial activity which overwhelms the wire worm.
• Plant companion plants in the garden bed such as marigolds as the roots excrete a substance into the soil that repels wire worm.
• Rotate your crops and plant other crops that are not affected by wire worm. Brassicas, carrots, strawberries and onions can be badly affected by wire worm.
• Rest the garden bed and sow a mustard green crop in autumn, dig this in just before the green crop flowers as it contains a substance that controls wire worm as it breaks down into the soil.
• Throw any crops infected with wire worm in the rubbish and not the compost as this will spread the problem further.
• There is some advice that I haven’t tried, but cut up a piece of potato, put it on a stick and bury it in the soil to attract wire worm. Leave it there for a couple of days and remove, throw in the rubbish, and replace with a new piece of cut potato.

Lianne