The earlier you can confirm wireworms are in your wheat field, the easier it will be to create a plan to manage them. 

There’s a time and place for oatmeal and honey bait balls, but buried bait traps are a better tool for confirming the presence of wireworms. They’re also straightforward to use and very simple to make from ingredients you can typically find at your local garden centre. 

Ingredients:

• Small plastic gardening pot with holes in the bottom
• Plastic pot saucer (to use as a lid)
• Vermiculite
• Wheat
• Water

Instructions:

1. Take the plastic pot and confirm the holes in the bottom are not obstructed.
2. Fill the pot about half full of vermiculite. The vermiculite is needed so the wheat will germinate and release CO₂. That CO₂ will attract wireworms to the trap as the wheat grows.
3. Spread about 20 grams of wheat over the vermiculite.
4. Finish filling the pot with more vermiculite, then give the whole trap a good soak with water to allow the wheat to germinate. Now you’re ready to go out to the field.
5. Scout the field and think about what it looked like in the spring and after harvest last year. Areas where wireworms caused damage may have experienced uneven emergence and thinner stands. These are good spots to place a trap.

   
   Wireworm damage as seen by uneven emergence and thinner stands​​​​​​​

6. Dig a shallow hole in the soil, place your trap in the hole and cover it with soil. Be sure there’s one to two inches of soil over the trap, ensuring the wireworms will enter through the bottom and top of the trap.
7. Place the plastic pot saucer over the trap. This will keep the trap moist if a bout of hot, dry weather occurs. Make sure you flag your traps so you can find them again easily!
8. You will need about 20 evenly spaced bait traps per acre to reasonably assess the presence of wireworms in a field.
9. After 10 to 14 days, you’ll need to return to the field and dig up the trap. The wheat within the trap will be fully germinated, so pull the plant apart. If there are wireworms in the field, they will be right on top of the trap, as well as feeding among the plants.

Watch a demo

Ted Labun, Seedcare technical lead with Syngenta, demonstrates how to build a more effective wireworm bait trap this season!