Effects of Cultural Practices and Rotational Crops on Abundance of Wireworms (Coleoptera: Elateridae) Affecting Sweetpotato in Georgia

Abstract

Effects of cultural practices on populations of wireworms affecting sweetpotato were evaluated, and a comprehensive survey was conducted to determine the preference of wireworms species for corn, sweetpotato, peanut, soybean, turnip, woodland, cowpea, fallow, cotton, tomato, and tobacco. In each of 3 yr, the highest number of wireworms per sample was observed in sweetpotato followed by peanut and corn. Few wireworms were recorded in fallow fields. Conoderus scissus Schaeffer and Conoderus rudis (Brown) were most abundant in Georgia. C. scissus and C. rudis were found in all crops and were most abundant in sweetpotato, whereas Conoderus amplicollis (Gyllenhal) was most abundant in corn. Conoderus falli Lane abundance was low in all crops. Cropping history influenced the wireworm species composition in sweetpotato. Wireworm populations increased in a crop when grown after sweetpotato, but baited traps of a corn-wheat seed mixture reduced wireworm populations significantly from the sweetpotato hills. Wireworms were more abundant in raised beds than between raised beds. Repeated plowing of the soil reduced wireworm abundance in a field. Abundance was greater in weedy fields than in weed-free fields.