FIGHTING THE JAPANESE BEETLE 



BY C. II. THOMAS 



A T Riverton, New Jersey, an entomological laboratory 

 ^^ has been established, with a corps of thirty or more 

 men. mostly college students, from the various state uni- 

 versities, and elsewhere, whose purpose is the study and 

 control, under efficient government supervision, of the 

 Japanese beetle. This destructive beetle has been found 

 in large numbers in Burlington and Camden Counties, 

 where it attacks the flowers, shrubs, nursery stock, vege- 

 tables, corn and a grc'at variety of marketable produce. 

 That the beetle is a real menace to other sections of the 

 country has been proven by its ravages in the territory 

 where it is now confined, and every effort is being made 

 Ijy the men who are study- 

 ing its life habits to control 

 the troublesome pest. The 

 beetle attacks the foliage 

 and injures by skeletoniz- 

 ing the leaves, also by at- 

 tacking flowers and actual- 

 ly eating fruit on the trees. 

 The Jai)anese beetle is a 

 beautiful insect about the 

 size of the potato beetle, 

 but flattened. The head 

 and thorax are shinin,:;' 

 bronze green and the elytra 

 or wing covers are brown- 

 ish tinged with green to the 

 edges. On the sides and at 

 the tip of the abdomen, 

 usually not concealed b\- the 

 wing covers, are conspicu- 

 ous white spots, which dis- 

 tinguish the species from all 

 others of the same size and 

 habits occurring in New 

 Jersey. It was first discov- 

 ered in 1916. having been 

 brought from Japan, ap- 

 parently. In some parts 

 20.000 of these beetles have 

 been collected in a single 



day. The spread of the insect is over an acreage of about 

 5.000 acres of the finest kind of soil. 



The fight against the beetle is being waged by using all 

 sorts of preventive measures, including the use of arsenate 

 in solution as a spray. From June 15th to November 1st 

 tl-.e Federal and State plant quarantine laws require farm, 

 garden and orchard ])roducts, plants and flowers, grain and 

 forage crops of all kinds, and soil from the infested area 

 tc be certified as free from the Japanese beetle before 

 shipment is jjern^itted. Farms within the quarantined 

 area, but outside the known infested territory, are granted 

 certificates permitting shipments until beetles are founfl 



JAPANESE BEETLES DESTROYING PEACHES 



Though the beetle seems to prefer a diet of developing roots 

 and compost of all kinds, it is as well a voracious feeder on 

 the choicest fruit, as shown in the photograph. 



and the permit revoked. The men are assigned each day 

 to certain farms, where they officially inspect all produce 

 to be sent to the markets, and a certificate is not issued 

 until the stuff is known to be as nearly free from the 

 beetles as is humanly possible to determine by a careful 

 inspection. The beetle lives in the ground a great deal 

 of the time, coming up and finding refuge along the road- 

 sides, whence it may be carried in a passing vehicle or on 

 l^ersonal clothing to a point outside the infected area, 

 which more than likely explains the way it got over into 

 Pennsylvania, where it is at present causing considerable 

 alarm, although scouts are now working vigorously to 



offset the pest in its new 

 habitat. The State De- 

 partment of Agriculture is 

 opening a field headquar- 

 ters in Holmesburg, Penn- 

 sylvania, from which it will 

 direct the fight against the 

 Japanese beetle. The bee- 

 tle invaded Pennsylvania 

 late in the fall from the 

 New Jersey side. A quar- 

 antine had been imposed 

 by the department upon 

 agricultural products in the 

 infested area, which takes 

 in the small strip of farm- 

 ing country in Philadelphia 

 county and ])art of Ben- 

 salem township, Buck s 

 county. Details of the pro- 

 posed fight to eradicate the 

 pest from Pennsylvania 

 were formulated at a con- 

 ference held in Philadel- 

 phia by Prof. J. G. Sanders, 

 head of the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, State De- 

 partment of Agriculture, 

 and C. II. Hadley, of the 

 federal Department of Ag- 

 riculture. A representative of the Pennsylvania Depart- 

 ment will be in charge of the field station, and a set of 

 maps will be made showing the location of each tract of 

 land in the infested area. Federal inspectors will be 

 appointed as deputies of the Pennsylvania Department 

 so as to facilitate the examination of intrastate shipments 

 from the quarantined district as well as interstate ship- 

 ments. The Japanese beetle is a strong flier and capable 

 of dispersing itself over considerable distances, but the 

 greatest danger lies in the ease with which it may be 

 carried in. vehicles or on clothing. To offset this the 

 shrubbery is burned close to the road and a good ways 



