WIREWORMS DESTRUCTIVE TO CEREAL AND FORAGE CROPS. My. 
When full grown this wireworm is about as thick as a heavy pack- 
thread. Unlike most of the eastern wireworms, which are usually 
most destructive on low-lying, heavy, or poorly drained lands, this 
wireworm seems to be far more numerous on the higher parts of the 
field in light sandy soils. The corn and cotton wireworm is one of 
the most troublesome pests of the southern United States. Bad 
outbreaks have occurred in the Carolinas, Missouri, Arkansas, and 
southern Illinois. Corn, oats, rye, cowpeas, crab grass, Johnson 
erass, peanuts, cotton, tobacco, sweet = 
potatoes, and watermelons are all at- | 
tacked, corn suffering the most of all. 
Investigations are now under way to 
determine efficient remedial measures 
for this insect. 
THE DRY-LAND WIREWORM AND THE 
INFLATED WIREWORM. 
The dry-land wireworm (fig. 5) and 
the inflated wireworm, which are very 
similar in appearance, seem to be con- 
fined to the dry-farming regions of the 
Northwest and to the wheat regions of 
the northern Middle West. Early in 
May the beetles emerge from the 
ground. They are about in large num- 
bers durmg May and in June, when the 
females burrow into the ground to 
deposit their eggs. These wireworms 
do not confine their egg laying to 
grasslands, but deposit the eggs in 
grain fields and weedy fallow lands. 
The wireworms spend two full sum- 
mers and a part of a third in the ground, 
transforming to beetles during July 
and August of the Pbarttsuariniers ghe>} Sia sireur Sh) ei altel 5, 
beetles not coming from the ground a, Adult beetle; 5, larva. Enlarged. 
uni ihe fourth isprings) Thus: the)“: Cuter siiusteation.) 
wireworms, as such, are in the ground during the growing season 
‘of three years. The beetles of the inflated wireworm have been 
observed in large numbers on the blossoms of wild rosebushes, where 
they were apparently eating the petals. The beetles of the dry-land 
wireworm are a little later in coming out of the ground, emerging in 
June and July. In the dry-land regions this wireworm feeds only 
during the spring, burrowing down from 4 to 8 inches below the 
surface to pass the hot, dry months. 
