Identification

• 1). Examine young turnips plants for signs of wilting and stunting. Dig up a few turnips and look for tunnels made by small white root maggots, the larval form of an adult fly. Wireworms are yellow or orange, vary in length from 1/4 inch to 1 inch, and are the larval stage of the click beetle.
  
  
• 2). Remove and destroy infested plants as soon as root maggots are found. Rake up any plant debris. Wireworms are more difficult to eliminate because of their two- to six-year life cycle. Moreover, there has been no agreement on one specific pesticide used in their elimination. Crop rotation has little effect because wireworms feed on a wide range of crops. There is some evidence that using parasitic fungi and nematodes keep the worms at manageable levels.
  
  
• 3). Good garden hygiene will help control most insect pests. In the case of root maggots, remove obviously diseased or questionable plants before the infestation spreads. Rake up dead stems and leaves at the end of the growing season. Burning the plant parts is the most reliable means of destroying eggs and larvae. Composting may not kill all the worms.
  
  Before planting turnips, pretreat the soil with diazinon for elimination of root maggots. Thorough turning and cultivation of the soil offers some help in controlling wireworm populations.