COMBATING A PEST

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 38, 12 January 1943, Page 8

COMBATING A PEST

GRASS GRUB BEETLE

MENACE TO ALL PLANTS

A method that is successful in combating grass grub which is at present ravaging plants has been described by a well knoAvn New Ptymouth nurseryman to a press reporter.

At the present, time of the year the beetle of the grub is on the wing and doing considerable damage to fruit trees, green vegetables and the leaves of other plants.

Brown, with a darker margin on the wings, the beetle is nocturnal in its habits, taking to flight at dusk, when <it makes a droning noise, states Mr R. p. Connell, M.A., of the fields division of the. Department of Agriculture. Large swarms appear in October, November and December. At the end of their flight in the twilight, the (beetles settle and feed, upon the foliage of many plants. Near daylight the beetles take shelter in the denser foliage or burrow in the. ground. Stones, plods and other objects on the surface also act as shelter. They are more active in calm, dull evenings than on bright moonlight or windy nights. The beetles lay their eggs in the ground, where the grub hatches out and eats right through the roots of grass and other plants. The New Plymouth nurseryman has found that the grub is partial) to all fibrous roots and <is a very eoiergetic eater. It can, however, be controlled, he considers. Although Government research has not yet found a parasite to. combat it, this nurseryman has used a method with some success. Arsenate of Lead When planting seedlings he uses a mixture of. arsenate of lead and dry compost, in the proportion of of lead to a two-gallon bucket of compost to sow with about 60 yards of plants. This mixture kills the grub as; it begins to eat the roots and so combats the menace at. its source. In all his planting this year_ frem quite early in July on he had not found 50 grubs in the ground as a result of this treatment, stated the nurseryman. However, the beetle at present on the wing is damaging ithc leaves of plants as much as the grub da mi* ages the roots. He noticed that the Prunus and 33elula family were particularly affected. Shot holes were left in the leaves of. some and other leaves were eaten right down to .the ribs. lie had not heard of the report that, beetles had been found dead in hundreds under karaka trees after eating the foliage but he had found the beetles dead under trees known to have poisonous foliage. The. best method so far known of protecting trees from the beetle was ito spray them with arsenate of lead in the dnj'time. However, the only really effective method of combating was to destroy it in the grub form.

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