WIEEWOEMS ATTACKING CEEEAL AND FOEAGE CEOPS. 7 



REMEDIAL MEASURES. 



[We recommend plowing socl land immediately after the first 

 hay cutting, usually early in July, when the land is intended for 

 corn the following year. This land should be cultivated deeply 

 throughout the remainder of the summer. Land that is in corn 

 and badly infested should be deeply cultivated even at the risk 

 of slightly " root-pruning " the corn. This cultivation should be 

 continued as long as the corn can be cultivated, and as soon as the 

 crop is removed the field should be very thoroughly cultivated before 

 ■sowing to wheat. In regions where wheat is seeded down for hay 

 any treatment of infested wheat fields is precluded. Where wheat is 

 not followed by seeding, the field should be ploughed as soon as the 

 wheat is harvested. 



Thorough preparation of the corn seed bed and a liberal use of barn- 

 yard manure or other fertilizer will often give a fair stand of corn in 

 spite of the wireworms, a vigorous plant often being able to produce 

 roots enough to withstand the depredations of several wireworms. 



Though we realize that usually this is not practicable, the inter- 

 posing of a crop not severely attacked by wireworms, such as field 

 peas and buckwheat, between sod and corn would materially reduce 

 the number of wireworms in the soil when the corn was planted. 



THE CORN AND COTTON WIREWORM. 



(Horistonotus uhlerii Horn, fig. 3.) 



The adults of the corn and cotton wireworm are small, slender, 

 and dusky brown; the largest is a trifle over three-sixteenths of 

 an inch in length and can easily be distinguished from other forms 

 infesting cereal crops by the heart-shaped scutellum. The wire- 

 worms of this tribe (Cardiophorini) are very unlike any of the other 

 wireworms. They are not hard and wiry, but soft, membranous, and 

 elongate. The body, which is usually white, appears to be composed 

 of 26 segments, every third segment being swollen. The last segment 

 is simply pointed. The head, which is yellow, is long and slender, 

 with a pair of very prominent dark-brown jaws. When full grown 

 these wireworms measure about an inch in length and are but little 

 thicker than pack thread. 



Unlike most of the eastern wireworms, which are usually most de- 

 structive in damp, low-Lying fields, these insects seem to be far more 

 numerous on the higher parts of the fields in light sandy soil. 



These wireworms are among the most troublesome species of the 

 southern United States. Mr. W. A. Thomas records x one species of 



1 Thomas, W. A. Corn and Cotton Wireworm (Horistonotus curiatus Say). So. Car. 

 Agr. Exp. Sta., Bui. 155, 10 p., figs. [i. o., pis.] 6, March, 1911. I have since been 

 informed by Mr Conradi that this is a misidentification and that the species in question 

 is H. uhlerii. 



