CHAPTER VII 



Insects Affecting Grains, Grasses, Forage and Miscellaneous 



Crops 



SEVERAL of our worst insect pests live normally in grass land 

 but when they become numerous feed upon grains and various 

 forage and garden crops, so that they are not readily classed as 

 enemies of any one crop, and will therefore be discussed together. 



White Grubs * 



Among the most common pests of corn, strawberry beds, 

 and garden crops are the large white grubs which feed upon 

 the roots and often kill the plants. Their habit of lying curled 

 up in a semicircle, and the large brown head, white body, and 

 enlarged abdomen, at once distinguish them from other forms 

 of grubs. Although they are very similar in color and form, 

 there are numerous species, all of which are the young of different 

 species of the large brown May-beetles or June-bugs, as they are 

 commonly called, which frequently fly into lights in late spring. 



Life History. The eggs are laid mostly in June, preferably 

 in grass land, but also in corn fields and gardens. The egg is 

 of a broad oval shape, pure white, about one-tenth inch long, 

 and is laid in a small ball of earth a half inch in diameter, from 

 1 to 5 inches below the surface. The eggs hatch in about two 

 weeks, most of them hatching by the middle of July. The 

 young grubs feed upon plant roots, and grow slowly, as it re- 

 quires two years or more for them to become full-grown. In 

 the fall they burrow down in the soil, gradually going deeper 

 as frost approaches until by the first freeze most of them are 

 from 7 to 14 inches deep. The next year they do much more 



* Lachnosterna spp. Family ScarabceidcB. See S. A. Forbes, Bulletin 116, 

 Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station, and J. J. Davis, Farmers' Bulletin 

 940, U. S. Dept. of Agr. 



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