24 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



throughout the State. Infected grubs are easil}^ recognized by the 

 slender, hornlike processes arising from beneath the head and fre- 

 quently attaining a length three or four times that of the host. These 

 growths are at first green and later turn brown. 



Preventives and remedies. The three-year life cycle and the 

 marked tendency of the beetles to deposit their eggs in the more 

 liixuriant grass, makes it comparatively easy to anticipate injuries, 

 particularly if some attention is paid to the amount of feeding by 

 the beetles upon forest and other trees. 



The eggs are laid in June, and in September or early October the 

 small, white grubs are readily found about grass roots and usually 

 within three inches of the surface of the soil. These pests are then 

 from one-fourth to one-half of an inch long and, if abundant at this 

 time, the probabilities are that the sod, and with it, the crop will be 

 destroyed early the next season. Land badly infested in this manner 

 should be plowed as soon as possible, disked once or twice and, if 

 practical, fowls or hogs allowed to run over the ground for a time 

 to destroy many of the pests. It is unsafe to plant such land to 

 potatoes, com or other susceptible crops. Small grains, especially 

 rye, buckwheat, clover and vetch are much more likely to escape 

 serious injury, and if the plowing and seeding is early enough, it may 

 be possible to avert entirely the injury which would normally occur 

 the next season if nothing was done. It is fairly safe to assiime that 

 land in good cultivation the year the beetles fly, will not be badly 

 infested with grubs the next season, even though in localities where 

 serious outbreaks occur. It may be better to replant such land to 

 com or potatoes rather than to adhere to the usual and generally 

 advisable rotation and put crops liable to injury on badly infested 

 sodland. 



The extended life cycle of these insects and their restriction to 

 grasslands make it apparent that a systematic rotation of crops is 

 one of the most important preventive measures that can be employed. 

 A rotation which does not allow land to remain in sod for more than 

 two or three years, if generally followed in a neighborhood, will 

 result in reducing the danger of serious injur3^ from these pests to a 

 minimum. Such farm practice is also advisable from the general 

 agricultural standpoint. 



The danger of losing the crop when com, potatoes or strawberries 

 are planted upon recently turned infested sod, should be more 

 generally recognized. The severe damage following such practice 

 is due largely to the great reduction in the number of plants for each 

 acre and the inevitable concentration of the grubs upon the small 



