wireworms

Wireworms are the larval stage of click beetles, members of the family Elateridae. They are slender, cylindrical larvae with hard bodies that are typically pale yellow to brown. Wireworms spend much of their lives in soil and feed on underground plant tissues, making them important agricultural pests in many regions.

Habitat and feeding: Wireworms inhabit cultivated soils, meadows, and pastures, often developing in the upper few centimeters of soil where plant roots and tubers are found. They feed on roots, germinating seeds, and stored tubers, leaving irregular feeding channels and sometimes causing stunted growth, wilting, or plant death in severe infestations.

Life cycle: Female beetles lay small eggs in soil. The pale larvae hatch and begin feeding, sometimes for two to five years, before pupating in the soil and emerging as adults. Adults are nocturnal, narrow, hard-bodied beetles that live for weeks to months and lay the next generation. The long larval stage helps wireworm populations persist in fields between crops.

Management: Integrated pest management emphasizes prevention and disruption of the larval habitat. Practices include crop rotation with non-host crops, deep tillage to disrupt larvae, and careful field sanitation. Biological controls such as entomopathogenic nematodes (for example, species in genera Heterorhabditis or Steinernema) can reduce larval populations. Bait traps and resistant cultivars may aid monitoring and reduction. Chemical controls are used selectively where approved and may be limited by resistance and environmental concerns; seed treatments or soil-applied insecticides are options in some regions.

Notes: The term wireworm also denotes larvae of several related species, and the specific pests vary by region and crop.