EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



64 VICTORIA, A. 190t 

 WHITE GRUBS ATTACKING WHEAT. 



The White Grub, the hirva of the June beetle ( Lachnosterna) , is a frequent 

 enemy of pastures, and also occurs, as is too well known, in gardens as an enemy of 

 the strawberry, and occasionally in farm lands is a destructive pest in corn fields. 

 This year an attack of some importance on fall wheat was brought to my notice. 



* Tancred (Lambton Co.), Ont., October 10. — The White Grub is '-:ating out the 

 fall wheat in this locality, especially on land that is inclined to be sandy. A year ago 

 last spring the June Bugs or Beetles were so bad that ray small plum and cherry trees 

 were nearly destroyed by them. I was in a great quandary to know how the young 

 foliage was being destroyed ; not a leaf was allo^ved to irrow until long after other 

 trees were in full leaf. I examined them carefully every day, but not a sign of insect 

 life could I find, until one night I was going to the stable with a lantern, and the 

 thought occurred to me, I'll look at the trees and see if I can find any insect working 

 by night, for I knew the trees, which were t\AO years old, should be exceedingly healthy 

 and thrifty. To say I was surprised at what I found is putting it very mildly. Every 

 twig and limb was one mass of crawlinp- June Beetles. T propliesied a full crop of 

 White Grubs last spring, and sure enough we got them.' — T. H. Myers. 



Unfortunately, very little can ba done when White Grubs are found attacking a. 

 crop. When the beetles attack fruit trees, spraying the foliage with arsenical poisons 

 will destroy large numbers, and when the White Grubs are found destroying the grass 

 on lawns some good may be done by spraying the grass freely with kerosene emulsion 

 and then washing it in with water. The eggs of the June Beetles are laid in spring,, 

 and the young grubs hatch soon after, but do not attain their full growth till the middle 

 of the next summer. They then change to pupae, and soon afterwards into the perfect 

 beetles, which, however, do not emerge until the following spring. 



THE PEA WEEVIL OR ' PEA BUG ' 

 (Bruchus pisorum, L.j. 



AttacTc. — A small, brownish-gray, very active beetle, one-fifth of an inch long, 

 with two conspicuous black spots on the end of the body, which emerges from seed 



pease in autumn or in spring, leaving a 

 small round hole. The insect is gener- 

 ally spoken of under the incorrect name 

 of ' pea bug,' and infested pease, as 

 ' buggy ' pease. The egg is laid on the 

 outside of the young pod, and the grub 

 on hatching eats its way in and pene- 

 trates the nearest pea. Here it remains 

 until full grown, consuming the interior 

 of the pea and passing through all its 

 stages, from a white fleshy grub to the 

 chrysalis, and then to the perfect beetle. 

 Some of the beetles, the percentage vary- 

 ing with the season, escape from the pease in the autumn and pass the winter hidden 

 away under rubbish or about barns and other buildings. The greater number, how- 

 ever, do not leave the pease until the following spring, so that they are frequently 

 eown with the seed. 



The perfect insects fly easily and resort to the pea fields about the time the 

 blossorps appear. They have been observed feeding upon the leaves and flowers of the- 

 pea vines before the pods were formed, but the injury so done is inappreciable com- 

 pared with the greater loss from the injury to the seeds by the grub«. 



Fig. 6.— Pea Weevil. 



