92 



VEGETABLE GARDENING. 



plants, while at the same time they 

 tected and at slight cost. 



are perfectly pro- 



White Grub or May Beetles (Lachnosternafusca). — The insect 

 known as the white grub is the larval stage of the May beetle. 

 It lives in the land where it feeds on the roots of plants. 

 The mature insect is a dark brown beetle, often nearly black 



with breast covered with 

 yellowish hairs. The 

 body is three-fourths of 

 an inch long and about 

 a half inch in diameter. 

 They fly at night and 

 are well-known insects 

 of the spring of the 

 year. As beetles they 

 fesd on the leaves of 

 various plants. The fe- 

 males lay their eggs 

 among the grass roots 

 in a ball of earth. 

 These hatch in about a 

 month and the grubs be- 

 gin to feed on the roots 

 near by. It requires 

 two or three years for 

 the grubs to get their 

 full growth and they 

 then undergo their 

 changes and emerge in 

 the spring of the third 

 or fourth year as the 



beetle described. 

 Figure 40.— May beetles at night. REMEDIES. — The 



grubs are eaten by birds, moles and skunks. They are 



not apt to be abundant in any but grass land recently 



broken up. They are exceedingly hard to destroy on 



account of their remaining so long in the soil. When young 



plants are seen to be wilting from the effects of the grub they 



may sometimes be taken up, the grub removed and the plant 



reset. When lawns or other grass lands are badly affected 



