Integrated soil management strategies for reducing wireworm (Agriotes spp., Elateridae) damage in potato fields : a three-year field study

Bohinc, Tanja (author), Adamič Zamljen, Sergeja (author), Vučajnk, Filip (author), Trdan, Stanislav (author)

Between 2023 and 2025, we conducted experiments at the Laboratory Field of the Bio-technical Faculty in Ljubljana to study alternative methods for controlling wireworms in potato fields. The trials were arranged in three blocks with five first-order (Brassica carinata, Brassica juncea, Nemakil 330, Rasti Soil Tonic G, positive control) and five second-order treatments (entomopathogenic nematodes, entomopathogenic fungi, zeolite combined with half-doses of these products, positive control with tefluthrin, and negative control), giving twenty-five treatments per block. Foliar pests and diseases were managed with contact plant protection products. We measured total tuber yield and divided it into three size classes, then assessed wireworm damage (holes per tuber). The purpose of the soil excavations in the first-order treatments was to verify the abundance of wireworms in the soil. Most combinations reduced wireworm abundance. The lowest tuber damage comparable to the positive control occurred when using zeolite with half-doses of entomopathogenic nematodes and fungi. The highest yields across all three weather-distinct years resulted from combining Rasti Soil Tonic with zeolite and half-dose entomopathogenic products. Although Nemakil 330 increased soil phosphorus, it neither improved yield nor reduced wireworm damage. Overall, the tested environmentally acceptable methods show promising insecticidal potential for sustainable wireworm control in potatoes.

• Language: English
• Keywords: wireworms, potato, field experiment, Brassica carinata, Brassica juncea, Beauveria bassiana, Steinernema feltiae, zeolite, Rasti Soil Tonic G, Nemakil 330
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: 25 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 15, iss. 12, art. 2831
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-176827
• UDC: 632
• ISSN on article: 2073-4395
• DOI: 10.3390/agronomy15122831
• COBISS.SI-ID: 260991491
• Publication date in RUL: 11.12.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Agronomy
• Publisher: AG
• ISSN: 2073-4395
• COBISS.SI-ID: 522953241

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: strune, škodljivci rastlin, krompir, okoljsko sprejemljive metode zatiranja

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: L4-4554
• Name: Preučevanje sinergizma med različnimi okoljsko sprejemljivimi načini zatiranja škodljivcev poljščin in vrtnin

• Funder: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Food of the Republic of Slovenia (MKGP)