THE HOME GARDEN PROJECT 



309 



of the most valuable preventatives of insect attacks in small 

 plantings. 



The following pests are particularly troublesome in small 

 gardens, and for convenience of the student are discussed under 

 this caption : 



Cut-worms (various species) : Plants set in the field sometunes 

 wilt or are entirely cut off at the surface of the ground. Upon 

 removing the soil just at the base of the plant, a dirty-colored, 

 naked caterpillar is found. This is a cut-worm, named from its 

 usual habit and one of the most trouble- 

 some pests of the garden. Cut-worms 

 are the younger stages of moths which 

 are active only at night. The adults 

 are active in July and August, laying 

 eggs in fields grown to weeds of any 

 kind. Worms hatch from these eggs, 

 and feed for a few weeks in the fall, 

 then pass the winter in the soil. In 

 the spring, they become active and re- 

 sume feeding on the first green plants, 

 of control are suggested : In large 



Fig. 79. — Millipede. 



The following methods 

 areas, free cultivation in 

 summer, fall plowing, early spring cultivation, poison mash. 



White grubs : These larvse of the common June beetle are the 

 large white grubs that are often found curled up in the ground 

 at the base of a plant. The female deposits eggs in the old sod 

 ground, preferably where the grubs can feed on the grass roots 

 during the three or more years necessary to complete its life cycle. 

 Consequently crops grown on newly plowed sod ground are most 

 likely to be attacked. Crop rotation is a means of control. 



Wire worms : These insects work within the soil', feeding on 

 newly sprouting seeds, or on root crops, or tubers. They are more 

 troublesome in newly plowed sod land, owing probably to the fact 

 that the larvse live in sod land during the three- to six-year life 



