AND OTHER INJURIOUS INSECTS OF IQOJ AND I908. I49 



time, show any further iiijnr\- from this source until 1910. In other 

 words, this year's grubs would change to beetles next spring, when 

 niating and egg-laying would take place ; the young hatching from eggs 

 laid in the spring of 1909 would not be large enough to work appre- 

 ciable injury until the summer of 1910. 



To be efiective, any treatment against this pest must be begun as 

 soon as the first signs of injury to the lawn are observed. To wait until 

 the grass is brown and dead is like shutting the door after the horse 

 is stolen. The most acceptable treatment at this date appears to con- 

 sist of copious watering of the lawn where possible, accompanied by the 

 use of some artificial fertilizer, like nitrate of soda (from 250 to 350 

 ])ounds to the acre), thus enabling the lawn by vigorous growth to 

 keep ahead of the grub. One should at least resort, in such emergency, 

 to abundant watering where possible, even though the fertilizer is not 

 applied. J. B. Smith, State Entomologist of New Jersey, claims to 

 have obtained relief by the liberal use of ground tobacco stems scat- 

 tered broadcast and liberally over an affected lawn, followed by copious 

 watering. He states that grubs disappeared after this treatment. This 

 suggests, naturally, the frecjuent sprinkling of lawns with a tobacco 

 decoction. Evidently, this would have to be c[uite strong and used 

 generously. These and other remedies will be given a thorough trial at 

 the next appearance of this pest on lawns. We have killed them by 

 the use of bisulphide of carbon without injuring the grass, but the 

 process is a slow one and impracticable where large areas are involved. 

 Clover is not seriously affected by this insect. 



After the lawn is dead in patches nothing remains for the owner 

 to do but to re-sod or re-seed. In addition to complaints through the 

 mail this season, we have noted their destructive work on various 

 parkways of the Twin Cities, on golf links and on private lawns in the 

 country. Lakewood Cemetery has suffered severely,_ and at this writ- 

 ing workmen are engaged repairing the lawns injured there. Lantern 

 traps, three dozen in number, were placed in various parts of this ceme- 

 tery for two successive years, 1906 and 1907. and many hundreds of 

 beetles captured, but the fact that in spite of these traps the lawns suf- 

 fered this year would indicate that the captured specimens were either 

 largely males, or females which had already laid their eggs, or both. 

 Robins greatly aid in the extermination of the White Grub, and may 

 frequently be seen pulling them from under the dead grass. They 

 should be encouraged in this good work. Moles and shrews eat them 

 and we believe that skunks are also fond of them. If the grubs should 

 be carefully removed at]d destroyed when brownish patches are first 



