wireworm trap

This picture shows my wireworm trap in action.  I stuck a number of full-grown carrots throughout my raised bed.  I pull them up and check for takers.  Wireworms are not very fast.  In fact, they often "play stick" when pulled up in the trap.  I usually take my time and cut them in half with an old plant description stick. 

I felt silly using good carrots as bait -- but they have lasted a couple of weeks already and don't show much sign of decay.  I hear you can bury potatoes too but I haven't tried it yet.

highs and lows in the garden

The kids found some strawberries in the yard.  They were pretty pleased with themselves.  Picked them without asking and then ran inside to show off their treasure.

I also found my own treasures in the yard.  Tonight I made a soup featuring fennel and chard from my raised bed.  It turned out to be rather tasty.  And I was pleased that I made good on my desire to eat more veggies today.

In the harvesting though I ran into one of my arch nemeses: a wireworm (visible on the railing next to the bulb beneath the hole it was creating on the root.)  Wireworms are known to eat roots and stems.  Thank goodness it wasn't interested in the bulb or my dinner would have been blown....   

I wound up bagging it so I can take it to a garden pest talk over the weekend.  I am wondering if the slow growth in my raised beds is due to wireworm damage -- or just a general lack of sun and heat.

Bug Identification: friend or foe?

So I found a couple bugs in my yard over the weekend -- and since all my bug knowlege is limited to the generic: bee, worm, beetle, ant, butterfly, slug, I took pictures and sent them off to Seattle Tilth for identification.  My first mystery companion?  (Click picture for a closer look.)

A millipede.  A gardner's friend.  These little guys are a slow-moving decomposers of organic matter such as leaves. They tend to roll up into a spiral when scared -- perhaps that should have tipped me off to its essentially good nature.

My second mystery companion? (Click picture for a closer look.)

A wireworm.  A gardner's foe.  This little guy tends to live in soils that recently held sod -- which makes sense since I first spotted these quick creatures when I was removing grass for my epimediums.  If I only knew what I was seeing then, I would have dispatched of them.  Instead I left them to their own devices.  As adults they are harmless click beetles.  However as young wireworms, they like to eat seeds, stems, and roots -- not good news for a veggie gardner.  And the worse news is that they stay in their larval wireworm stage for two to six years before becoming adults.  For more information you should check out this University of Maine Cooperative Extension fact sheet that Seattle Tilth shared with me. 

Perhaps is was wireworms that did this to my tyfon (turnip.) 

Since my epimediums have been slower to emerge than expected, I am going to try a technique that Seattle Tilth said might be helpful -- leave some decoy carrots in the bed to lure the wireworms from the new starts.  If I have nibbles in a week I will know that I have a problem.