250 " MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



During July these full grown wireworms crawl a little de'epcr into 

 the soil, and there wriggle their bodies until they have packed the earth 

 away and thus made a little cell in which they change to pupae. These 

 pupae are entirely different in shape from the wireworms, and more 

 closely resemble the adult beetle in shape. They are a little longer, how- 

 ever, and their bodies are almost a pure white in color. While the wire- 

 worm larvae are so extremely tough, these pupae are extremely and un- 

 usually delicate and tender — a character we may take advantage of in 

 controlling this insect in our cultivated fields. 



In three or four weeks these pupae change to adults. These new 

 adults are of a light cream color, and are likewise extremely delicate and 

 tender. They remain in these earthen cells, and very gradually attain 

 the normal color of the insect, and also gradually become hardened. 

 These adults now remain in these earthen cells during the rest of the 

 summer and fall and throughout the winter, and come forth the next 

 spring, usually during April. 



From what has been said, it will be seen that the larvae are three 

 years in reaching their full grown larval stage, during which time they 

 remain almost constantly beneath the surface, readily burrowing through 

 it and feeding upon the roots of clover and various grasses. The pupae 

 stage lasts but a comparatively short time, and the adults that come from 

 these pupae remain in a quiescent condition for an exceedingly long 

 time before they attempt to free themselves and assume an active life. 

 It will also be seen that while the larvae are unusually tough and hard to 

 destroy, as are likewise the adults that have appeared above ground, yet 

 the pupae and the young adults arc unusually tender and very susceptible 

 to any disturbance of their subterranean cells. It might be well to men- 

 tion in this connection, however, that not all wireworms require three 

 years in order to reach the full grown larval condition, and that wc have 

 reasons for believing, on the contrary, that others required even as 

 much as five years in order to complete their full larval life. 



REMEDIES. 



Meadows and pastures and other grass lands may be very badly 

 infested with wireworms and yet show no particular indications of their 

 presence, or at calst do no appreciable aniomit of damage such as the 

 farmer would observe. These grassy fields and byways may be thus 

 badly infested for a good many years, and their presence not observed 

 until such places are plowed, when they may find these wireworms in such 

 immense numbers that a single cubic foot of earth may contain fifteen to 

 twenty of them. 



