GRASS GRUB CONTROL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21233, 13 July 1932, Page 12

GRASS GRUB CONTROL.

Sir, —I have read of the havoc the grass grub is doing. Perhaps my experience with the grub in Canterbury 45 to 50 years ago and the means the farmers took then to destroy the beetle would be of interest. The grub attacked the grass paddocks and also the winter-sown wheat, and hundreds of acres of wheat and grass were destroyed No attempt was then made to destroy the grub, as it was. useless, so they were left to do their worst till the end of July, when their activity ceases. The ground was then resown with spring wheat, the bare areas in the grass paddocks were harrowed and resown, and good results were shown. In November, or from the time the beetle is on the wing, fir£s from the cut gorse fences were lit at night, and the beetles, attracted by the light, came on in their, millions, and were burned or their-wings singed. In one paddock alone I gathered five large buckets of beetles one morning. Next morning I gathered three bucketsfull; the third morning half a bucketfull. This only represented the beetles with singed wings. How many were burned it would be impossible to state. However, for years afterwards the grub was no trouble, and the practica of lighting fires and buraing them off is in vogu# to this day. W.M.R.