This beetle is also a pest of rice and sugarcane in Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas. Damage in North Carolina occurs statewide but most frequently in the Piedmont counties. Although the sugarcane beetle is primarily a problem on corn, sugarcane, and rice, it also infests cotton, strawberry, rose, and wild grasses. Feeding below the soil surface, the beetles chew into the outer walls of lower stalks leaving large ragged holes. Seedlings suffer the most damage and are often killed when the beetles destroy the growing point.
Damage occurs most frequently when corn is planted into a sod field or adjoining such a field.
Damage occurs primarily from April 15 to June 15 in Gulf Coast states and from late April to late June in Virginia and North Carolina. Although they may become active on warm days in late fall or winter, they normally do not resume continual activity until late March or early April. After mating in the soil, females each deposit clusters of three or four eggs in earthen cells. Approximately 2 weeks later, larvae emerge and begin feeding on decaying vegetable matter. After 2 or 3 months, the mature larvae enter a 2-week pupal period.