D3431: Click beetles in Quebec (Canada): Identification of sex pheromones and new pest species in the province

Wireworms, the larvae of click beetles (Coleoptera:Elateridae), are soil pests that affect cereal and vegetable crops at the beginning of the growing season, and damage potato tubers in the fall. Several species occur in fields in North America. Seed treatments are often used to manage these pests, but new regulations that limit insecticide use in Quebec require the development of new strategies to manage these pests. Pheromone-based tactics such as mating disruption and mass trapping are potential alternative methods, and pheromone-baited traps are useful for monitoring pest pressure and distributions.

During the last years, several projects have been conducted to identify the sex pheromones of key pest click beetle species in Canada. Using synthetic sex pheromones as trap lures in different fields across the province, we have detected the presence of Agriotes sputator, an invasive pest species previously not known to occur in Quebec, and we have discovered that A. pubescens, a native species not previously reported as a pest, occurs in large populations on farmland.