Combating Wireworms Through Cover Crops

If you could pick one garden pest to be the antithesis of regenerative farming, it would – hands down – be the nefarious wireworm. These pests (the immature stage of the Click Beetle) cause huge amounts of crop damage every year, and our farm has been particularly hard-hit from minute one. Normally, the best ways to deal with them are heavy tilling, chemically-treated seeds, and soil drenching with a pesticide such as pyrethrin (which, with the exception of the treated seeds, would all be permitted under organic certification practices). However, being a (stubbornly) regenerative farm, none of these methods are an option for us. Instead, we have turned to more natural ways of controlling their numbers – mainly, repeated doses of beneficial nematodes (which prey on the wireworms) and using cover crops as a biofumigant. Right now, we are growing a trifecta of mustard, oilseed radish, and lacy phacelia. Both the mustard and the oilseed radish release chemicals as they decompose that kill and/or deter soilborne pests. Oilseed radish also helps to break up soil compaction with its long root systems. Lacy Phacelia - besides being an excellent plant for bees and other pollinators - brings up nutrients from deep within the soil, making it more readily available to other garden plants.