MR. McDANIEL: Does this disease affect any other beetles we have in
America, besides the Japanese?
MR. ADAMS: Yes, one other species; it causes some sickness in the grubs of the turf pest known as the Oriental beetle.
MR. McDANIEL: How about the green June beetle?
DR. ADAMS: No, unfortunately, it doesn't work on that beetle, which is a pest on Long Island and in the South.
A MEMBER: How much area would a (1/2-pound) can like that treat?
DR. ADAMS: It depends. You can apply a half-pound to a quarter acre, or any smaller space you want to put it on. If you want to put spots down closer together, say every three feet, it will treat about 1,000 square feet. It suggests on the label that you do. But if you treat a plot on a large field, I'd recommend you put it out at about a teaspoonful every ten feet. In other words, I wouldn't put less than a half-pound on the plot set aside for it on my place. The application is just a starter to introduce the disease in the area, and it doesn't matter too much whether you spot it at 10-foot intervals on a pasture or put it at fairly close intervals on an area about the size of this room. The point is that it mustn't be broadcast, because that spreads the spores too thin. Grubs don't get the disease if they eat only a few spores. We assume that where you put the spots down on the ground the grubs under those spots will get the disease and wander off and die. When a grub dies, it multiplies the number of spores up to many millions. That portion of soil becomes infective, and more grubs going through the infective portions carry the disease to intervening areas until the whole piece of turf is unhealthful to these grubs. Droppings of birds feeding on sick grubs spread the disease.
MR. FRYE: One application is all that's needed?
DR. ADAMS: One application is all that's needed. Control is slight at first, but increases with the passage of the years.
MR. CORSAN: Quail feed on them. Why can't we have quail around the farms instead of shooting them?
DR. ADAMS: I would be for that, but we have to find other methods for a lot of people. Besides, we need something that will intercept some of the grubs in the fall, before they get big. After all, by the time the quail are interested in them, they have already done some damage in the ground. In the ground the grubs can do two kinds of damage. They can make turf loose so it can be rolled back like a rug. Second, if you should plow up a piece of sod that has many grubs in it and try to plant row crops or nursery stock, they may eat the roots off the planting in the spring.