Topic: Flame gun for wireworms?

[Squash64]

Someone on our site asked me if the committee could buy a flame gun for people to hire out ....................to sterilize the soil.  ???

He said it would kill all the wireworms which he says are causing holes in potatoes.

Now this doesn't make any sense to me - I can't imagine the heat from a flame gun would penetrate more than a few inches of soil but I'm no expert.
Is it possible? 

[Digeroo]

When I dig my robins take the wireworms.   They are very good at finding them.  Another reason I am not convinced about the no dig system.

Like you I am not convinced the flame gun would penetrate into the soil.  I have run mine over the soil where the potatoes/tomatoes have been to get rid of the fungus.

I got mine quite cheaply in Lidl but not sure where I can get replacement cans, they are quite expensive and it seems to use it up quite quickly.

[tonybloke]

I don't have wireworm on my plot (no-dig), any I did have I trapped, and fed to the local blackbird.
they are the larvae of the click beetle, which lays its eggs in grass (which I don't have)

[Squash64]

I don't have wireworm on my plot (no-dig), any I did have I trapped, and fed to the local blackbird.
they are the larvae of the click beetle, which lays its eggs in grass (which I don't have)

This is interesting.  I just Googled click beetle larvae and this is not what the man is talking about.  He means those ginger things with lots of legs that move very quickly (he showed me one)  Do you know what they could be?  I know the description's a bit rubbish, I would take a photo but they don't keep still long enough!

[ceres]

I know the things you're talking about and I think they are centipedes and they're good guys.  They are predators (fast-moving for hunting) and they eat things like aphids.  Millipedes are slow-moving and will apparently eat tubers.  I also suspected the fast orange things of making the holes in potatoes, but I think it's just co-incidence because they're easy to spot.  I think the damage to spuds is probably a combination of any or all of slugs/millipedes/wireworm/eelworm.

[Squash64]

I know the things you're talking about and I think they are centipedes and they're good guys.  They are predators (fast-moving for hunting) and they eat things like aphids.  Millipedes are slow-moving and will apparently eat tubers.  I also suspected the fast orange things of making the holes in potatoes, but I think it's just co-incidence because they're easy to spot.  I think the damage to spuds is probably a combination of any or all of slugs/millipedes/wireworm/eelworm.

Thank you so much for that - I Googled centipedes and that's what the man is talking about.  He showed me one - and then squashed it.  :o
I'm going to have a word with him.

[tonybloke]

tell him not to kill centipedes!! (latin- hundred feet)
they are a fast-moving (relative for their size) predator!! definately on the side of the gardener!! make little hidey-holes for them if possible. ;)

[Robert_Brenchley]

A flame gun won't penetrate the soil, and if it did - I dread to think how much paraffin you'd have to burn per cubic foot- you'd probably carbonise everything and destroy the goodness.

You can roast a little soil in an oven, but a whole plot is something else!

[RobinOfTheHood]

You can roast a little soil in an oven, but a whole plot is something else!

Shouldn't this one be in Recipes?  ;D

[Digeroo]

any I did have I trapped

How do you trap wire worms?

[Robert_Brenchley]

You can roast a little soil in an oven, but a whole plot is something else!

Shouldn't this one be in Recipes?  ;D

Perhaps, with a health warning. It makes a horrible smell.

[Diddy]

I thought that those long red multi legged were wire worms, (you chonk them in half and they still wriggle). Just looked it up and wire worm are larvey, see they look like a brown drug capsul. I have been killing off work mates - oh dear.

I see that to sterilize the soil in a big Greenhouse, (mind you it must kill everything off including weed seeds and good and bad bugs), they use a huge sheet of plastic, edges sunk in the ground to conserve the steam. This plugged into a huge steamer, with a 2" - 3" pipe - wonder if one could make something up on those lines, smaller, with a safety pressure release valve.  Might be useful to cover the compost heap when it is ready for spreading out.  Diddy.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Ifr you wanted it to penetrate the soil, the energy consumption would be horrendous. Jeyes would be a lot cheaper.

[Diddy]

Ah there's a thought- Jeyes fluid for the creepy crawlies and then spread out the compost prior to using in a thin layer and then use the flame gun for the weed seeds not killed off in the heap.

Think that this where I am going wrong when using the compost material, I keep hoeing new weeds off.

Diddy.

[Robert_Brenchley]

If you heat the compost enough to kill seeds under the surface, you'll burn away a lot of the goodness, and use vast amounts of fuel. If you've got problems with seeds germinating, cover it with an organic mulch.