THE WHITE-GRUBS. 25 
and others. Nor can their presence be readily detected, and as 
ageneralrule most of the damage is done before we realize the 
cause of it. Wesee plants die and then by digging in the 
ground we find the culprits. There are a number of reme- 
dies, however, that can be used in case we detect the pres- 
ence of such white grubs in time; for instance, if we find 
yellow spots in the lawn and on examination find the white- 
grubs, we can under certain conditions kill them, providing 
the soil is not a heavy clay and is not soaking wet. In a 
dry and sandy soil the application of a strong kerosene- 
emulsion, immediately followed by a drenching with water, 
will carry the oil down to where the soft insects are and kill 
them by contact. Four or five days after the application 
we find the grubs dead and black. In cases where these in- 
sects have already killed the sod we can use pure kerosene- 
oil and follow this with lots of water tocarryit down. But 
after all one of the best remedies is to plow up the infested 
fields and give the enemies of the white-grubs a chance to 
eat them. All birds and mammals are exceedingly fond of 
these fat grubs. Wherever the latter are present in our 
prairies they attract large numbers of sea-swallows as soon 
as the fields containing them are plowed. Our black tern 
makes it a business to follow the plow for the sake of pick- 
ing up such delicate morsels, and we see these birds con- 
stantly darting to the ground for this purpose. Wherever 
crows abound we find them also engaged in this good work 
and numerous other birds have the same beneficial habits. 
Such animals as skunks, weasels, shrews, gophers and even 
field-mice feast upon them. In the more southern part of 
the state the mole subsists almost entirely upon the white- 
grubs and angle-worms. Whenever we plow orspade in the 
garden we should permit chickens to witness this operation 
and give them an opportunity to pick up white-grubs, which 
they are not slow to do. If hogs are permitted to range in 
our fields they soon exterminate white-grubs. 
Some people think that stable manure adds to the num- 
ber of white-grubs, but this isonly apparently the case. The 
larva of another beetle remotely allied to the Lachnosterna 
breeds in large numbers in manure heaps. The adult is a 
