STRAWBERRY PESTS 



1951 



Tarnished Plant Bug 



Lygus pratensis Linn. 

 (Family Capsidae) 



General Appearance 



The mature bug varies from pale green 

 to grayisli-brown, marked with yellow, 

 black and red. The legs are pale brown 

 or yellow with dark rings. The young 

 bugs are lighter in color than the adults, 

 without pronounced markings. All forms 

 are exceedingly common and very active. 



Life History 



Hibernation is usually passed in the 

 adult stage, under any convenient shel- 

 ter. In the early spring the females de- 

 posit their eggs directly upon the food 

 plants. The young begin to feed as soon 

 as hatched, and continue throughout their 

 life history. This species is exceedingly 

 prolific, and its ability to travel rapidly, 

 and the large variety of food plants, make 

 it a constant menace. 



Food Plants 



This bug feeds on almost every kind of 

 plant. It is especially abundant in grain 

 or hay fields. All vegetable gardens afford 

 a ready supply of food. It is often de- 

 structive to apple, pear and strawberry. 



Control 



Because of its omnivorous habits and 

 wide spread it seldom becomes a serious 

 pest of any one crop. For the same rea- 

 sons, control measures are most difficult. 

 The presence of the insect need cause no 

 alarm unless it is concentrating its at- 

 tacks to a damaging degree upon culti- 

 vated crops. In such cases contact in- 

 secticides, such as emulsions, soap washes, 

 tobacco sprays, resin washes, etc., may be 

 used with deadly effect. These insecti- 

 cides should be applied early in the morn- 

 ing and great care taken that they are not 

 strong enough to injure the foliage of ten- 

 der plants. 



Clean culture serves to rid them from 

 the fields before planting and to lessen 

 the attacks the coming year. 



E. 0. EssiG 



Weevil. See Strawterry Root Weevil 

 and Strawterry Weevil 

 White Fly. See Strawberry White Fly. 



White Grubs, May Beetles or Jnne 

 Bngs 



J. B, Smith. 



*White grubs occur in strawberry fields, 

 sometimes in troublesome numbers, but 

 rarely two seasons in succession, and then 

 it is only the young fields that are 

 troubled. 



Life History 



White grubs are larvae of "May beetles,' 

 or "June bugs," the clumsy brown beetles 

 about an inch long, that fly to light and 

 often into houses in late May and earl^* 

 June. These beetles lay their eggs in 

 grass lands or land covered with vegeta- 

 tion to form a sod of some kind. Their 

 growth is slow and it requires three years 

 to complete the transformation. During 

 this time they have remained under- 

 ground, feeding upon roots, emerging as 

 adults in May or June of the third sea- 

 son. 



There are several species of May beetles, 

 and there is probably some difference in 

 their life cycle, but, in a general way, that 

 above given is correct. 



It will be readily seen that after a plot 

 is in sod for three years the ground will 

 be full of grubs in all stages of growth, 

 and that every year thereafter the num- 

 ber of full-grown larvae is likely to in- 

 crease. 



When such a sod is turned under and 

 another crop is planted, that crop almost 

 inevitably suffers, for the insects, deprived 

 of the mat of roots upon which they have 

 been feeding, concentrate on the small 

 number of plants, and the result is fatal. 



Remedial Measures 



We have no satisfactory insecticides to 

 reach underground insects. They have 

 their natural enemies among the verte- 

 brates — ^birds, moles and the like — as well 

 as insect parasites and fungous diseases, 

 but these do not keep down the insects 

 to harmless numbers. 



It is in farm practice that our hope of 

 control lies. In the first place keep land 

 in grass or fallow as short a time as pos- 

 sible consistent with the desired rotation 

 and never allow a field to become badly 



*New Jersey Bulletin 225. 



