colorado potato beetle

[JRinPA]

For the first time I am seeing Colorado Potato Beetle on my potatoes.

Every year I always see a few False Colorado Potato Beetle on my eggplant. Never saw many on the potatoes, just a few. Their larvae are gray, and I always called them booger bugs. Boogers under the leaf, instead of under the 3rd grade desk. But this year the larvae I've seen are brown, dark brown. I cleaned them up tonight and killed about 6 adults, one pair mating. These were real Colorado ones. And there were pretty many in certain sections, and small. I only found a few yellow egg masses.

So...does anyone else deal with both types, Colorado and False Colorado? I have a feeling these Colorado Potato Beetles are going to be more a problem than the prettier ones. These look like pests...while the False Colorado are rather handsome bugs.

[rxkeith]

colorado potato beetles left unchecked will destroy your potato crop or greatly diminish it.
they also like egg plant with equal or greater relish. you can control by spraying or picking them
off by hand and smashing the egg clusters. if you can smash the egg clusters, and the larva before
they get large, you can gain the upper hand. i pick them off by hand. larva like the tender shoots, and
can be found under leaves. check the plants often when they are still small. i have found beetles on
shoots that were only a couple inches tall. what is also helpful is to plant a bunch of carrots, parsley, dill
or fennel near the potatoes. let them go to seed. the next year you will have a carpet coming up in the garden.
those plants will keep the potato beetle away. might be parasitic insects that prey on the potato beetle. i had a
garden that was potato beetle free after three years. live and let live in the garden unless you are a potato beetle
cabbage looper or cut worm.


keith

[JRinPA]

Well. I picked them three times killing all the bugs I could say. I never found any adults after the first time. I only found one egg mass since the first time. That first time was with flashlight and just squishing them. The next two were daylight knocking them into dish soap water or smashing. I guess that is 4 hours in total.

Last night I sprayed spinosad after picking. Hopefully it stays dry a few days. I don't see any today on the plants. There are a few volunteers coming up in other rows. That was where I found the egg Mass yesterday. So volunteers are great but not when you have bugs. I guess maybe I should have pulled all of them. Never thought about that being a source for breeding.

[JRinPA]

I will need to check other people's planta as well I guess..

[GoDawgs]

You did good, @JRinPA ! You'll find fewer and fewer adults as last year's crop of 'em are done or killed. It's those egg masses that are important to get to prevent the next generation next year.

[JRinPA]

I feel like 4 hours of work is way more than I did last year on the potatoes other than planning and picking.


Guess I need to check my potatoes at home, too.

I don't really have the garden set up to let stuff volunteer the next year. Carrots or parsley etc. I have pretty frequent rotation in the rows from year to year. And usually two or three crops per row in the course of the year. I do like to transplant parsnips from last year in the spring strategic locations haha to breed ladybugs. There were some ladybugs on the potato beetle larvae yesterday. I moved a few before crushing larva.

I'm using voice to text for close to first time for web forms. I know I'm going to have a lot of spelling and grammar errors. But it is too difficult to try to correct them. Sorry about that

[JRinPA]

So here is a timeline for SE PA
Saw some adults a week back. Couldn't find any eggs or maybe smashed them.
Mon 6/3, noted larva at dark and picked them for 2 hours. Mostly on the younger leaves, particularly the younger plants from deeper potatoes. I think I knocked a lot off by smashing. They probably crawled back the next day.
Wed 6/5, noted more larvae and picked them into soap water for 1 hour. More thorough job but three hands would be nice.
Thurs 6/6, still some left and picked them into soap for 45 minutes. Sprayed 1 gal/$2 worth of spinosad for 10 minutes.
Fri 6/7, saw one larva, checked for 5 minutes, nothing else.
Sat 6/8 - looks all clear.
This was at the comm garden, about 35 ft of row with corn on the outside. Pictured is a single row planted layered deep +shallow. The other is a double row of shallow, I guess that is what it would be called.

This is what it looked like on some of the plants on Wednesday before second picking.
I don't recall ever seeing these before. It is always the False ones, and the larvae are grey, not brown. And usually on Eggplant.

02.JPG

03.JPG

I still need to check the backyard, keep forgetting.

[JRinPA]

20 ft by 4 ft of raised bed in the backyard all clear of potato beetles. I figured I would have noticed them by now. But a good search revealed nothing at all. Probably only 500 yards on a straight line between the community garden and my house. But so many more bugs at the com Garden because of no crop rotation for the whole area at once.