158 



as winter approaches, returning again tlie following sjiring anil doing a groat 

 deal of liarm by eating the roots of grasses and many other kinds of plants, 

 particularly corn and potatoes, their injuries being most noticeable in the 



May Br.f;Ti,K. (Fig. 57.1 

 (a) beetle; (I)) pupa; (c) larva (white grub) 

 (Chittenden Bull. 19, U. S. Div. of Ent., U. 



SHgbtly enlarged. 

 S. Dept. Agr.) 



second year after .sod has been ploughed down. It is claimed by Dr. S. A. 

 Forbes that a second winter and summer is passed as a larva and that the 

 grubs do not change to pup» till June and July of the third season, the 

 perfect beetles issuing from the pupte two or three weeks afterwards, but 

 passing the third winter in the pupal cells and emerging the following June. 

 Thus three full years are consumed from the time the eggs are laid until 

 the perfect beetles appear. 



Remedies. — Unfortunately, there are no measures which can be depended 

 upon for the destruction of White Grubs in most croiis: but as the eggs are 

 laid mainly in grass land.s, land which has been In sod for .several years should 

 not be planted to corn or potatoes the second year after breaking. The first 

 year the grass which is ploughed down, to a large measure, feeds any grubs 

 which may be in the ground ; and. as pigs are particularly fond of these grubs, 

 ;i ci-iiii such as rape or turnips may be sown with advantage and the Held 

 turned into a hog pasture, when the pigs will not only feert on the crop, but 

 hunt out many of the grubs in the soil. It is claimed that these animals 

 will, in the course of a few weeks, completely clear a badly infested turf. 

 On account of the deiith to which the grubs burrow before winter, these 

 crops should be fed off before the first frosts. Clover, it has been par- 

 ticularly no'ticed, is seldom attacked by White Grubs: therefore, this croj) 

 becomes of special value for growing on land wliirli it is intended to use for 

 corn or potatoes the following year. When, as is sometimes the case. White 

 Grubs aiipear in large numbers in meadows, this fact is manifested by the 

 dying of the grass in large patches. If, on examination, the grubs are 

 noticed, iiigs should be at once turned in, and before autumn the patches 

 renovated with fresh seed. 



Ijcaving land under grass for several years gives opportunities for White 

 Grubs to increase: hence, a short rotation in which clover follows grass or is 

 grown at sliort intervals. Avill prevent the increase of these insects. In tliis 

 special rotation small grains should follow clover before corn or potatoes. The 



I 



