MAY BEETLES (Phyllaphaga spp.),
also called June beetles, June bugs, and daw bugs; known in the larval state as white grubs. The beetles are large, an inch or more long, stout, reddish brown or black. The dirty white, hairy, wrinkled grubs resemble those of Japanese beetles but are twice the size. They lie on their sides in the soil, with the hind end, shiny from the dark body contents showing through, almost touching the legs. There are many species, and the life cycle varies according to location, being completed in a year in some species in the South and taking 2 or 3, sometimes 4, years in the North.

The adults appear in spring after trees have come into leaf, and they fly at night, feeding on many shade trees and shrubs. They lay their eggs in sod, the grubs injuring grass roots the first fall and the next season feeding on roots of all kinds of cultivated plants-corn, potatoes, beans, carrots, strawberries, roses, etc. Those with a 3-year cycle pupate the next spring and transform into beetles in earthen cells but do not come out to fly until the third spring.

Control. Lead arsenate is still used for preventing injury to lawns, 10 pounds per 1000 square feet, and is somewhat preferred to DDT. Chlordane and aldrin are also successfully used in grub-proofing. Treating soil with chlordane or lindane before planting strawberries keeps them protected from white grubs. In heavy flight years trees and shrubs can be sprayed with lindane or chlordane to protect foliage.

MEXICAN BEAN BEETLE (Epilachna varivestis).
This large lady beetle, one of the very few harmful members of that group, is surely known to every backyard gardener who has tried to grow a few beans. Snap beans and lima beans are particularly favored; it leaves soybeans to the Japanese beetles.

The beetles are broad, convex, 1/3 inch long, coppery yellow with 16 black dots. They hibernate in trash or weeds and after beans are up in spring move over to feed and lay groups of orange eggs on underside of leaves. The larvae are orange yellow, fat and fuzzy, with rows of black- tipped spines. They skeletonize leaves in a lacy pattern, eating out everything but epidermis and veins.