license from the Secretary of Agriculture, commercial companies were 

 authorized to market the spore preparations to extend their usefulness. 



Research showed that single treatments applied in spots a few feet 

 apart in beetle -infested soil usually establish the spores. Infected grubs, 

 moving about in the soil, spread the spores, and birds and animals that 

 eat infested grubs or soil help to carry the spores to new areas. The 

 process does not give dramatically quick relief from beetle damage, but 

 in a season or two established spores show their underground effective- 

 ness --Japanese beetle populations dwindle and foliage and turf damage is 

 less. 



Once well established, the spores tend to resist heat, cold, dryness, 

 and moisture and are in the soil to stay for a long time, unless man strips 

 away the soil layer containing them. Instances of the Japanese beetle 

 becoming destructive in new suburban developments have been noted. 



Where a fast kill of the grubs is important to save turf from serious 

 damage, chemical insecticides continue to be useful. Also, chemicals 

 may be needed for a fast kill of beetles when they are devouring foliage. 

 Milky disease spores do not kill the adult insect. 



A Killer of Many Pest Caterpillars 



Preparations containing spores of a bacterium that scientists call 

 Bacillus thuringiensis are being commercially produced for use on 

 specified crops. Production has gone through the following stages: 



Bacillus thuringiensis showed such promise for use against a number 

 of caterpillar pests that several years ago agricultural specialists stressed 

 a need for large supplies in ready-to-use form to permit field testing to 

 expand. 



In 1958, permits to several companies for shipment of preparations 

 containing Bacillus thuringiensis were issued by the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture under the provision of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and 

 Rodenticide Act. A temporary exemption from the requirements of a 

 tolerance was granted on about 50 food and feed crops, by the Food and 

 Drug Administration. These actions made possible large scale testing by 

 selected growers in continental United States, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and 

 Australia. The number of crops under temporary exemption has since 

 been increased and this testing continues. 



In the spring of 1960, the FDA established permanent exemptions 

 from need for tolerances in using this material on 12 crops. The USDA 

 has issued registrations for companies to market preparations containing 

 the organism for control of certain caterpillars on some of these crops, 

 namely, artichokes, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, lettuce, pota- 

 toes; also on alfalfa for use limited to Arizona and the West Coast. In 

 addition, a registration has been issued for use of the organism on tobacco, 

 which requires no tolerance exemption. 



No registration has been issued thus far for using the bacillus in 

 control of tree pests. In both laboratory and field experiments, the bacillus 

 has given encouraging results against a number of forest pests, but this 

 research has not reached the stage of practical treatments being developed 

 and recommended for use by timber growers. 



