982 Oe TONG eee 
the daytime and in dry weather the slugs feed beneath the ground, eating 
large parts of the stems of plants (Plate LX_X, 2, and fig. 92, B). Such 
plants may be so severely injured that a wilting of the parts above ground 
results. 
When a slug crawls up the stem of a young bean plant, it usually devours 
the budlike growing tip before it moves on to the leaves. Plants of this 
kind are always stunted and show an abnormal, useless growth of small 
leaves (fig. 91, C). Such plants commonly die, and even when they survive 
they fail to produce mature seeds. 
If the slugs are numerous at the time of pod formation, it is not unusual 
for them to eat holes into the sides of the pods (fig. 91, A) and feed on the 
soft beans within. Often several holes of this kind are found in a single 
pod, and sometimes a slug after destroying one bean will move along inside 
the pod and feed in turn on all the remaining seeds. 
INJURY TO PLANTS OTHER THAN BEANS 
In its nocturnal feedings above ground, Agriolimax agrestis seeks the 
tender leaves of lettuce, corn, cabbage, and cauliflower. The injury 
which the slug does to these plants is similar to that which it produces 
on large bean leaves, and causes the plants to become unhealthy and 
unmarketable. When the weather is such that the slugs are active in 
late summer, they frequently eat large holes in the sides of ripe tomatoes 
and fall strawberries, in addition to eating the leaves. 
The pest feeds underground on potatoes, and, together with the millepede 
Julus caeruleocinctus Wood, causes considerable damage in western New 
York by eating out large cavities in the tubers. Carrots, turnips, radishes, 
and beets suffer similar attacks on their fleshy roots. 
HOSTS AND POSSIBLE FOOD SUPPLIES 
Agriolimax agrestis has such a wide range of food plants that it is classed 
as almost omnivorous. Among the plants which it feeds upon are cabbage, 
potatoes, eggplant, lettuce, beans, lima beans, peas, corn, strawberries, 
gooseberries, cucumbers, melons, cauliflower, wheat, turnips, beets, carrots, 
radishes, celery, clover, oats, dahlia, dandelion, dock, chicory, tobacco, 
hops, and tomatoes. There are also many weed hosts on which this 
mollusk may be found, such as burdock, ragweed, lamb’s-quarters, and 
mustard. It finds palatable several species of mushrooms also, and many 
ornamental shrubs and vines, and it finds abundant food in sod land and in 
lawns © Overgrown places in fence corners and along the edges of fields 
often harbor many of the slugs. Manure is acceptable to them as food, 
and their eggs, as well as young slugs, have been observed in large numbers 
where manure had been scattered in piles around a field. Cooke (1895) 
mentions as among the possible foods of agrestis, may-flies, beetles, and dead 
