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, chapter 7, in Silent Spring‎^[1], Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 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,^[2]

     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.

   Synonym: milky spore

2. Synonym of grasserie (“disease of silkworms”)