It is widely distributed in South Carolina and in the Border Belt counties of North Carolina. However, economic injury also occurs in the other belts. Host Plants - Tobacco, corn, cotton, potatoes, and other crops are hosts of the tobacco wireworm. Less frequently attacked are melons, beet roots, and strawberry fruits that touch the soil surface. Damge - The tobacco wireworm and the southern potato wireworm are the most common of several wireworm species that attack the stems of newly set tobacco.
Wireworms damage newly set tobacco plants by boring into and tunneling in the stalks.
Some plants may be killed or stunted which results in the need to replant. The resulting irregular stand has plants of varying size and maturity. More management problems occur with topping, suckering, and harvesting. The amount of damage varies from year to year and from field to field depending on weather, transplants, soil type, crop rotation, etc. Wireworms are more commonly a problem in Coastal Plain soils, especially if the field has not been plowed during fall and winter, or if the field was planted to a winter cover crop.