MSU Extension Integrated Pest Management

Click beetles

Insect

Click beetles

Ctenicera sp., Agriotes sp.

Coleoptera: Elateridae

Distribution: Numerous click beetle species are widespread throughout the eastern fruit-producing states and provinces.

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The click beetle is dark-colored (A); its body is hard and elongated; it has a characteristic pair of spurs and sometimes colorful markings on its thorax. When set on its back, it can bend its body and suddenly straighten out, propelling itself into the air to right itself, and emitting a distinctive "click" in the process.

• Crops Affected: apples, pears

  Damage

  Occurs in apple and pear, and occasionally other tree fruits. The adult sometimes chews on and destroys flower buds, pistils and stamens, and may be found in tunnels made by European apple sawfly; larvae are found in soil and feed on roots.

  Management

  This insect causes negligible problems and tolerance is probably more economical and better advised than intervention.