For 25 years the U.S. has tried many a purely defensive measure against Japanese beetles, but last week its first large-scale offensive with hope of success was under way. The offensive was made possible by a newly developed weapon, the Bacillus papillae, which kills grubs under the soil before they turn into the brown-winged green beetles which every summer ravage the Atlantic seaboard from Chesapeake Bay to Long Island Sound.
The Japanese beetle probably came from Japan on a shipment of ornamental shrubs. It was discovered in the U.S. in 1916 near Riverton, N.J. Like concentric ripples in a pool, the beetles...
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