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7 
WIREWORMS ATTACKING CEREAL AND FORAGE CROPS. 7 
REMEDIAL MEASURES. 
We recommend plowing sod 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 hght sandy soil. 
These wirewcrms are among the most troublesome species of the 
southern United States. Mr. W. A. Thomas records* one species of 
1 Thomas, W. A. Corn and Cotton Wireworm (Horistonotus curiatus Say). So. Car. 
Agr. Exp. Sta., Bul. 155, 10 p., figs. [i. e., pls.] 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. 
