96 VEGETABLE GARDENING, 



potato beetle. Tobacco dust is also an excellent preventative 

 used in this way. Some gardeners having quite extensive plant- 

 ings, and many who are working in a small way, prefer to cover 

 each hill with a box or frame covered with cheese cloth. In this 

 case, the edges of the box or frame should be sunk an inch or so 

 in the ground to keep out the bugs. Frames for this purpose are 

 readily made of barrel hoops cut in halves and fastened together 

 or of three slender sticks forming a sort of tent. This method 

 allows the light and air to circulate freely around the plants, 

 while at the same time they are perfectly protected and at slight 

 cost. 



White Grub or May 

 Beetles (Lachnosterna 

 fuse a. — The insect 

 known as the white 

 grub is the larval stage 

 of the May beetle. It 

 lives in the land where 

 it feeds on the roots of 

 plants. The mature in- 

 sect is a dark brown 

 beetle, often nearly 

 black with breast cover- 

 ed with yellowish hairs. 

 The body is three- 

 fourths of an inch long 

 and about a half inch in 

 diameter. They fly at 

 night and are well- 

 known insects of the 

 spring of the year. As 

 beetles they feed on the 

 leaves of various plants. 

 The females lay their 

 eggs among the grass 

 roots in a ball of earth. 

 These hatch in about a 

 month and the grubs be* 

 gin to feed on the roots near by. It requires two or three years 

 for the grubs to get their full growth and they then undergo their 



Figure 41. — May beetles at night. 



