root-worm

Definitions

noun Any one of several species of insect larvæ which feed on the roots of plants.
noun Any one of many species of nematoid worms of the family Anguillulidæ.

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word root-worm.

"I think you are nothing but a lying root-worm," Oben grumbled.

Firestorm L.A Graf 2000
We are getting the upper hand of the curculios by the use of cryolite spray but the root-worm beetle problem is still unsolved.

Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Thirty-Eighth Annual Meeting Guelph, Ontario, September 3, 4, 5, 1947
EDITOR PRAIRIE FARMER -- There can be hardly a shadow of a doubt that the injury which your correspondent so graphically describes is due to the corn root-worm (Diabrotica longicornis), a full account of which will be found in my report for 1882, published last November.

Prairie Farmer, Vol. 56: No. 3, January 19, 1884. A Weekly Journal for the Farm, Orchard and Fireside Various