134 FARM FRIENDS AND FARM FOES 



This is a difficult pest to contend against. The most 

 effective method as yet employed is the laborious one of 

 picking the beetles by hand and destroying them. 



Click Beetles 



Every farmer's boy is familiar with the slender, yellow 

 Wireworms so commonly found when grass lands are 

 plowed. These insects feed upon the roots of grasses and 

 grains. They often become seriously destructive to crops 

 planted upon ground that has been in 

 sod for several years. When fully de- 

 veloped in their larval stage, these Wire- 

 worms change to pupae within oval cells 

 in the soil and a few weeks later change 

 again into adult Click Beetles or Elaters. 

 They usually remain, however, within 

 the cells until the following sjmng, the 

 tissues gradually hardening until they 

 become very firm and hard even for a 



beetle. Then the adults come forth and 

 Eyed Elater n r ■< i_ ^ r. • - • 



ily treely about, often visitmg various 



flowers from which they lap up the nectar. These Elaters 



are often called. Snapping Beetles from the fact that when 



placed upon their backs, they snap upward, apparently in 



an effort to regain the crawUng position. It is supposed 



that the eggs are laid about the roots of grasses. 



The Wireworms are very difficult to destroy by any form 



of insecticides. The most desirable method of checking 



their increase seems to be that of fall plowing, which breaks 



up the pupal cells and exposes the beetles to destruction 



by weather conditions through the winter. 



