[Organicgrowingpains]

Hi, I am back online after coping with a trojan virus on my computer,the treatment of which meant remembering my passwords etc for different sites I use, I eventually remembered the one for this site!
We have been busy on the allotment and are spending as much time as possible getting ready for next year putting in permanent raised beds covering them with manure and plastic so they will be ready to go next Spring.
Our potatoe crop did get some blight but we cut down the stalks and so far they are OK, we seem to be suffering more from slugs than anything else.
I did bring up this query before and I think wire worm were given as the culprits by making holes for the slugs to get in.We were discussing this on the plot today and wire worm seems to be a problem for a few people.
Are wire worm endemic to the place or is there a treatment other than putting in nematodes which is a solution none of us seem to care for?

[Belfast]

"Wireworms are hard, reddish or yellowish grubs about 1 centimetre long and feed on the roots of grass and weeds. The grubs are usually only a problem in new ground that has been broken out of old grassland, occasionally attacking the roots of new plants, including bedding plants.

Damage to potato tubers is common after old grass, the tubers tunnelled by wireworm grubs. In a lawn the damage is rarely significant. The larvae mature within three years of the old grassland being ploughed up and rarely appear in cultivated ground afterwards."

[Organicgrowingpains]

Hi Belfast, thanks for the prompt reply! Our allotments are surrounded by open grassland, I wonder if that is the reason they are so plentiful in most of the plots?I found the most damage was done in the bed nearest the path which is joined to this grassland, this particular bed had not been previously dug for years and had completely overgrown with grass and weeds.