Evaluation of transplant drench and foliar insecticide applications for wireworm (Coleoptera: Elateridae) management in sweetpotato.

The revocation of chlorpyrifos tolerances in 2022 left sweetpotato growers without their most important tool to combat a complex of soil-borne root pests that includes wireworms (Coleoptera: Elateridae). Since then, growers have reported increased root damage despite a rapid pivot to pyrethroid-based management systems to replace mechanically incorporated preplant chlorpyrifos broadcast sprays. Our goal was to evaluate the efficacy of alternative insecticide chemistries and application methods to expand the portfolio of management options for wireworms, specifically Conoderus spp.

Identification of sex attractants for 6 North American click beetle species in 4 tribes of the Elateridae.

We describe experiments that evaluated potential sex pheromone components for 6 North American click beetle species. In field trials in Illinois, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, male beetles of 6 species were strongly attracted to geranyl butyrate (Agriotes insanus Candèze), 5-methylhexyl (Z)-4-decenoate (Elater abruptus Say), 11-dodecenyl butyrate (Melanotus ignobilis Melsheimer), and limoniic acid (Gambrinus griseus [Palisot de Beauvois], G. rudis [Brown], and G.

Optimization of 13-tetradecenyl acetate sex pheromone for trapping Melanotus communis (Coleoptera: Elateridae).

Corn wireworm, Melanotus communis Gyllenhal (Coleoptera: Elateridae), is an economically important larval pest of root and tuber crops in the United States. Previous work to estimate field-level abundance of M. communis has focused on grain-based larval baits placed in soil.