Research Scientist Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Agassiz, British Columbia, Canada
Wireworms are the subterranean larval stage of click beetles (Coleoptera: Elateridae), and are crop pests around the world. Wireworms are chewing pests that consume cereals and pulses in the seed and seedling stage, thinning crops and reducing yield. They also blemish root and tuber crops, reducing marketable yield. There are currently no effective chemical controls available for this pest in Canada. Wireworm species assemblages vary by region and by field. Wireworms have multi-year life stages, living several years in the soil, and therefore may respond to previous crop rotations. We sampled wireworms and click beetles weekly from spring to harvest in 12 commercial spring wheat fields in the Lethbridge area in southern Alberta, Canada in each of 2017, 2018, and 2019 (=36 fields total). To be eligible for sampling, study fields had to be suspected of having a wireworm problem by the farmer, be seeded to spring wheat in the year of sampling, and have one of the following rotations in the previous two years: cereal-cereal, cereal-canola, canola-cereal, pulse-canola. Here we report results on wireworms associated with the crop rotations, wireworm species compositions, specimen sizes, and timing of insect activity. Results will guide future research efforts for Canadian Prairie wireworms.
