milky disease

English

Noun

milky disease (uncountable)

  1. A disease of the white grubs of Japanese beetles, caused by a soil-dwelling bacterium, Paenibacillus popilliae.
    • 1962, Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Chapter 7, p. 97,
      When ingested by a foraging beetle grub [the spores] multiply prodigiously in its blood, causing it to turn an abnormally white color, hence the popular name, “milky disease.”
    • 1972, United States Department of Agriculture, Plant Protection and Quarantine Programs, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, “The Japanese Beetle: How We Fight It,” p. 6,
      If possible, biological controls are used. One of these is milky disease, a bacterial disease that infects and kills the grub without causing harm to other animal life.

Synonyms

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.