Pest wireworms on the Canadian Prairies: Communications with farmers

Wireworms have been notable crop pests on the Canadian Prairies for at least 100 years. Research began in the 1920s and continues to this day and there are dozens of impressive papers on pest wireworm identification, behavior and ecology in the Canadian Prairies. However, the information has been mostly housed in the scientific literature, not accessible to people outside of professional research or extension. In at least the past 5 years, we have noticed when talking with farmers and agronomists that there were many questions and misconceptions about wireworms, and many misidentifications of other pests and beneficial organisms as wireworms. A recent survey of Alberta farmers demonstrated that insecticide seed treatment use is high for wireworms and that there are some misconceptions as to what management tools are necessary or available. To help with this problem, in 2021 we published a free Agriculture and Agri-Food Publication Guide to Pest Wireworms in Canadian Prairie Field Crop Production. This guide is a plain-language synthesis of the history, life cycle, main pest species, monitoring and management options and research needs for pest wireworms in our area. The guide presents high-quality photographs of the main pest species of wireworms and organisms that are often mistaken for them. So far we have distributed over 1800 free hard copies of the guide and have recorded hundreds of known digital reads.