9 FARMERS’ BULLETIN 1725. 
KINDS OF WIREWORMS, AND WHERE FOUND. 
Wireworms are the young or worm stage of several kinds of hard- 
shelled beetles popularly known as “click-beetles,” ‘skipping jacks,” 
“snapping beetles,” etc. These names are all derived from the 
beetles’ unique habit of snapping the forepart of the body when 
placed on their backs or held between the fingers. This habit is 
undoubtedly of use to the beetles in righting themselves when 
accidentally overturned and may also be a means of escape from 
their natural enemies. Wireworms are elongate, more or less 
cylindrical, and have a very highly polished skin. They measure, 
according to kind, from one- 
half inch to 3 inches in length. 
They have three pairs of short 
legs near the head end of the 
body. The color usually is 
yellow or reddish brown. The 
cotton-and corn wireworm (fig. 
4) is very different in appear- 
ance from all other wireworms. 
The name wireworm is erro- 
neously applied to the false 
wireworms of the Western 
States (fig. 1, a), and the meal- 
worms found in granaries (fig. 
1, b). In many parts of the 
country root webworms also 
are wrongly called wireworms, 
and the name is incorrectly ap- 
plied to several kinds of ‘ thou- 
Fig. 1.—Larv likely to be mistaken for wireworms; sand leggers”’ (fig. iB Cyn 
Sas ie he: aes eter “thousand legger.”’ True wireworms are among 
All enlarged. (Author’s illustrations.) i 
the five worst pests to Indian 
corn and among the 12 worst pests to wheat and oats. They are also 
important enemies to many other crops, notably potatoes and sugar 
beets. They constitute a group which is probably one of the two most 
difficult groups of insects to control. In the last part of this bulletin 
the results of recent investigations as to control measures are set forth. 
These insects are destructive to cereal and forage crops in the 
larval or worm stage only, although the beetles of some kinds do 
considerable damage to the blossoms of fruit trees. Wireworms 
attacking cereal and forage crops confine their attention to the seeds, 
roots, and underground stems and live almost exclusively under- 
ground. The damage is first noticed immediately after seeding, when 
they attack the seed, eating out the inside and leaving only the hulls. 
