Examples are pastures and sagebrush lands being brought into potato production. The most common wireworm found in our irrigated lands is the sugarbeet wireworm. The most common species in uncultivated soils is the Great Basin wireworm. Damage Wireworms bore holes in tubers. The holes, which look as if they were made by stabbing the tuber with a nail, usually are lined with potato skin.
Wireworm feeding on the seed piece or stem also opens tubers to decay and rot organisms.
This can result in an unhealthy plant and reduced yields. The life cycle of most common Wireworms takes 3 to 4 years under favorable conditions. Wireworms spend the winter in the soil either as partially grown larvae or as new adults in overwintering cells. Adults work their way to the soil surface in the spring when soil temperatures reach 55 degrees Fahrenheit or above. These adults eat little if anything and cause no economic damage.