Cultural Control - Commercial potatoes should be planted as far as possible from a previously infested site, and when possible, away from urban areas known to have tuber flea beetles. Volunteer potato plants and weeds should be destroyed, and piles of plant material should be removed. Wireworms Several species of wireworms infest potatoes in Alberta. They chew pits and tunnels in tubers and reduce their salability. The wounds also allow blackleg and rhizoctonia disease organisms to enter.
Adults emerge in the spring from the soil where they wintered.
Shortly after mating, the female beetles lay up to 300 eggs in the soil. Depending on environmental conditions, the larvae require between 2-5 years to reach their full size of approximately 2 cm. A population density of one or more wireworms per square metre can cause serious economic losses to a potato crop. While most fields will not reach this level in Alberta, new fields that have been in sod during the previous year may harbor wireworms, and it is therefore advisable to test for them in such fields. Baiting provides a poor estimate of wireworm density in a field, but it is a quick way of determining if the pest is present.