WIREWORMS DESTRUCTIVE TO CEREAL AND FORAGE CROPS. 3 
This, of course, results in a poor stand. In such eases, by digging 
into the hill, the wireworms may be located. When they are very 
numerous they often consume an entire seeding, and, aside from the 
extra labor and the cost of reseeding, this delays injuriously the 
planting of the crop. If this be corn in the Northern States, the part 
of the season remaining is too short to bring it to maturity, and, 
except for the fodder, the crop is a failure. Where wireworms are 
present, even in small numbers, corn usually makes a poor stand, so 
that the replanting of missing hills is necessitated. 
Several hundred kinds of beetles, the young of which are wire- 
worms, occur in North America. Many of these, however, are of 
little immediate importance to the 
farmers, as they live in rotten logs, 
under moss, or on the roots of weeds, or 
prey upon other insects. The destruc- 
tive wireworms are found in nearly all 
parts of the United States. “Some of 
these, such as the wheat wireworm and 
the corn wireworm, abound in heavy 
moist soils rich in vegetable matter. 
Some, as the inflated wireworm and 
the dry-land wireworm, prefer well- 
drained soils, and still others, like 
the corn and cotton wireworm, are 
most destructive on high sandy land 
which is very poor in vegetable mat- 
ter. As the several kinds of wire- 
worms have such varying habits they 
can not all be controlled in the same 
way, and a variation in method is Be Fa, 2.—The wheat wireworm: a, Adult bee- 
quired for each of the several groups. tle; 5,larva; c, side view of last segment of 
Bor this reason it is quite necessary to © “"V% 4) @Useed. (From Chittenden.) 
be able to determine what kind of wireworm is doing the damage. 
THE WHEAT WIREWORM. 
The adult, or beetle, of the wheat wireworm is brown and a little 
over one-fourth inch in length (fig. 2, a). The wireworm itself (fig. 
2, b) is pale yellow, evenly cylindrical, and very shiny. When full 
grown it measures about 1 inch in length and is about as thick as 
the lead in a pencil. This wireworm can be easily recognized by 
the two dark spots near the base of the tail (fig. 2, c), and it is one of 
the commonest wireworms in the northeastern and middle-western ° 
United States. It is normally a grass feeder, living on the roots in 
