They prefer to lay their eggs in fields with high organic matter. This means that fields which are mucky, mulched, manured, or weedy are at a greater risk for attracting more females, and having a seedcorn maggot problem. Also, late-planted corn fields tend to have more seedcorn maggot damage. When damage does occur, it usually involves a large area of the field because the conditions attractive to egg-laying females are present over most of the field. The seedcorn maggot completes its development in a couple weeks, but there are up to five generations per season.
Wireworms are the larvae of click beetles.
The adult is harmless, but the long, brown larvae feed on both seeds and seedlings. Wireworms are most often found in significant numbers in fields with little disturbance, or in fields planted after sod or alfalfa has been plowed under. Wireworms have a long life span, up to four to five years in some cases, and frequent disturbance would kill many of them before they have a chance to complete development. Like the seedcorn maggot, cool, wet weather can increase the extent of wireworm damage by exposing seeds and seedlings to feeding for a greater time. But unlike the seedcorn maggot, the wireworm's damage is often patchy in the field.