The presence of three potentially serious white grub pests of turfgrass and ornamental plants were confirmed this year during surveys conducted by the Turfgrass Entomology and Applied Ecology Laboratory at Purdue University and the Indiana Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey with the help of several golf course superintendents, concerned citizens and one very keen graduate student from the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources at Purdue. The European chafer, Asiatic garden beetle and Oriental beetle are similar in biology to their cousins, the masked chafer and Japanese beetle, yet differ enough in behavior, habitat and host-plant selection to pose new management challenges.
Persons finding grub damage this fall are encouraged to seek an expert for identification of the insects or submit specimens to the Plant Pest Diagnostic Laboratory at Purdue.