Wireworms in grass reseeds

[Dales Chris]

Hi I'm new to this and looking for advice.
We try and reseed a field every year, usually after 1st cut we roundup the regrowth and direct drill the seed. The seeds look good at 2 weeks then as the 3rd leaf opens up it all seems to disappear as fast as it came. Our seed rep came and said wireworms are the problem.
Our contractor had some old spray at the back of the shelf that we put on and it slowed the rigglers down enough to get a crop growing strong enough to outrun them. He has none of this spray left now.
Any advice out there on how to get a crop growing, or get rid of the worms??

 

[neilo]

You may want to edit your post as that chemical has been illegal to use for about 9 years now.

 

[serf]

Hi I'm new to this and looking for advice.
We try and reseed a field every year, usually after 1st cut we roundup the regrowth and direct drill the seed. The seeds look good at 2 weeks then as the 3rd leaf opens up it all seems to disappear as fast as it came. Our seed rep came and said wireworms are the problem.
Our contractor had some old spray at the back of the shelf that we put on and it slowed the rigglers down enough to get a crop growing strong enough to outrun them. He has none of this spray left now.
Any advice out there on how to get a crop growing, or get rid of the worms??

Looks like you will need a brassica break between grass to cut the cycle down from the vermin .
Maybe false seedbed it too so the corvids come over to scratch it up and look for pests ...

 

[Dales Chris]

You may want to edit your post as that chemical has been illegal to use for about 9 years now.

It's at least 7 or 8 years since we had the spray, been struggling on without it since then.

 

[Dales Chris]

Looks like you will need a brassica break between grass to cut the cycle down from the vermin .
Maybe false seedbed it too so the corvids come over to scratch it up and look for pests ...

We've had kale and rape before, both do a good job for feeding/store lambs. But we need the fields back to grazing for lambing mid march.

 

[Dales Chris]

We've had kale and rape before, both do a good job for feeding/store lambs. But we need the fields back to grazing for lambing mid march.

Would we be best ploughing rather than direct drilling?

 

[Derrick Hughes]

We've had kale and rape before, both do a good job for feeding/store lambs. But we need the fields back to grazing for lambing mid march.

Put some Hybrid Ryegrass in at a good rate if you have no other option, that will germination realy fast and shouod be OK

 

[Derrick Hughes]

And roll it twice

 

[Tarw Coch]

Looks like you will need a brassica break between grass to cut the cycle down from the vermin .
Maybe false seedbed it too so the corvids come over to scratch it up and look for pests ...

It can take quite a while to break the cycle though, have had the little buggers make a mess in maize on land that was cereals the previous year, following grass, agronomist says it will be at least 2 years to break the cycle and could be up to 4 to eliminate them completely.
We have less trouble putting maize straight after grass, the theory being that the first year they are still feeding on the remnants of the decaying sward.

 

[ffukedfarmer]

A good dose of Digestate overcame the issue here last year.

 

[Matt]

Would spray off and drill with a brasica then back to grass in September be enough of a break.
Or would just spray off and recreational cultivation once a month be enough to knock numbers

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Would spray off and drill with a brasica then back to grass in September be enough of a break.
Or would just spray off and recreational cultivation once a month be enough to knock numbers

As above it needs a 2 years to clear them
Cant see that would reduce them much
And unless it's early September it's getting late for a long term ley
Double brasica crop would be better

 

[Kevtherev]

Brassica break crop with lot of cultivations seen them devastate wheat crops before in old turf ploughed up for cereals.

 

[Kevtherev]

Put some Hybrid Ryegrass in at a good rate if you have no other option, that will germination realy fast and shouod be OK

They will probably knobble that as well so more money wasted.
Bassica the most economical answer but will take time to reduce them.

 

[Skater]

Would we be best ploughing rather than direct drilling?

It depends when you plough. Larger larvae will usually survive some pretty intensive cultivation. I have bait trapped plenty within a month of a potato harvester going through the field. If you plough between May and late September, you would most likely reduce the population of young ones, and they will rarely do much damage for at least a year after hatching.

 

[Skater]

Would we be best ploughing rather than direct drilling?

If you plough between May and September then you would reduce the population that was hatching that year. Ploughing in spring when the soil is warm (10C) would expose some to predation by birds, if any are about. I doubt ploughing directly kills more than around 10%. Ploughing when the soil is cold and the larvae have moved deep does no good. I have seen none behind destoners when soil is cold but they damaged potatoes that summer.
Hope that helps, get in touch if you want to know more.