Adult beetles are narrow, hardshelled with narrow vertical stripes. They can be brown, black, or reddish and an inch long. They emerge from the soil in spring or summer. Eggs are laid at the base of plants. They prefer to lay on weedy grasses. The eggs hatch into larvae that look like thin, orange-yellow inch-long worms with 6 tiny legs. The worms pupate about an inch below the soil's surface where they change into adults.
All click beetles have flexible joint-like midsections. With this midsection, they can flip themselves upright when overturned making a clicking noise, hence the name. males perch on grass stalks, while females stay below nearer to the soil while emitting pheromones.
The adult beetles feed on pollen and nectar of flowers or aphids and mealybugs depending on the species. The larvae, wireworms, feed on soil dwelling insects such as mites, springtails, small earthworms, corn rootworms, Japanese beetle larvae, and corn maggots. Wireworms rarely eat plants except for potato tubers, germinatings seeds, and roots of plants when they have to.
The adults and larvae are usually nice, but in potato states, they can get pretty nasty.
Controls include organic gardening methods such as cultivation, crop rotation, and replenishment of the soil. Wirewoms can buikld up in lawns and pastures so don't plant crops in a garden created from such patches of land. Provide enriched soil for them to eat from instead of your tuber crops. If they do cause plant damage, use bury chunks of potatoes to lure them away from your important crops. Grow flowers with lots of pollen to attract the parasitic wasps and brachonids that utilize the larvae of the click beetle. If you grow potatoes, an insecticidal soap will probably be needed preferably an organic one.
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