CHAPTER XIII. 



I:N^SECTS mJURIOUS to the SUGAR-BEET.* 



INJURIN^G THE ROOT. 



White Grubs and Wireworms. (See images 44 and 48.) 



FoRTUisrATELY for the sngar-beet farmer the worst insect 

 enemies of that pest feed npon the tops, and very rarely 

 do we hear of serious damage being done the roots. In 

 the East most of the damage to the roots is done by those 

 two familiar old farm-thieyes, the white grub and the 

 wireworm. As a general rule they will be found to be 

 worse on lands previously in sod, which should therefore 

 be avoided when known to be badly infested with either of 

 these insects, as both are diflicult to fight after they have 

 once commenced doing noticeable injury. 



As the wireworm -beetles — " click-beetles " — become 

 mature in late summer, but remain in the pupal cell in a 

 half-hardened condition over winter, much can be done 

 toward destroying them l)y plowing late in the summer 

 and keeping the land stirred for a month or so, in this way 

 exposing the newly transformed tender beetles to the fall 

 frosts. 



* See Forbes and Hart, "The Economic Entomology of the 

 Sugar-beet," Univ. Ill Agr. Exp. Sta., Bull. Xo. 60, Aug. 1900, 

 for summary. 



254 



