INSECT ENEMIES AND PLANT DISEASES 133 
root lice in their nests, the best preventive of injury is to 
prepare the field for corn by deep and early plowing and 
repeated discing. This tears up the ants’ nests and scatters 
the root-louse eggs through the dirt, at the same time keeping 
down the young weeds upon which the root lice live until 
the corn begins to grow. 
The corn root louse has perhaps worked a greater injury 
to corn than any other one insect. Every farmer should 
THE CORN ROOT LOUSE 
Aphis maidiradicis (female) 
study the habits of this insect and make every effort to 
check its injurious work. 
The Corn Root Worm (Diabrotica longicornis): The 
adult of the corn root worm is a beetle; green or yellowish 
green in color and about a quarter of an inch long. The 
beetle feeds on the pollen and silk and deposits her eggs 
in the ground at the base of the stalk. The following spring 
these eggs hatch out into the corn root worms. 
