Colorado Potato Beetle

Durgan · June 22, 2013

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?SIGKH 22 June 2013 Colorado Potato Beetle. The Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata), also known the potato bug, is a pest of potato crops. This potato bug appears every year and can seriously damage a potato crop if not controlled. My method of control is to pick and squash, but I have only 60 plants, and must patrol the bed several times daily. Large growers must use chemicals.Seldom is any grower immune from the potato bug.One fecund adult can lay up to 800 eggs during the season.

joseph · June 23, 2013

I have a wild solanum weed that is more attractive to Colorado Potato Beetles than domesticated plants. My contract with the potato beetles goes something like this: Eat as many weeds as you like. It's a death sentence to get on a domestic solanum. (Squashing experience.) If a tomato, or potato, or eggplant, or pepper is repeatedly attractive to the beetles then I'll chop it out to avoid confusing them. This strategy only works because the beetles live here year round, and because I only sow my own seeds that have shown themselves to be unattractive to the beetles in the past. I figure that I'm modifying the genome of the beetles and of the crops so that they can co-exist. (Perhaps I'm changing the culture of the beetles, but that's too esoteric to think about.)

spacetogrow · June 23, 2013

I'd read that black nightshade can help if planted in con★★★★★★★★ with crops that attract potato beetles. Is that the wild solanum you use? Is it just that the potato bugs are more attracted to the wild nightshade?

Black nightshade is one of the weeds that grows in our community garden but it is very scattered. I saved some seeds last year and planted a few near the eggplant this year, but they haven't sprouted yet. Maybe I planted them too deep. I wonder how well they transplant.

(I also read that some people eat ripe black nightshade fruits. Is that nuts? Has anyone here tried it?)

joseph · June 24, 2013

My weed that attracts the beetles is Solanum physalifolium.

halleone · June 24, 2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by joseph

My weed that attracts the beetles is Solanum physalifolium.

Well, I'll be! That's what that weed is. I've seen that weed growing around here since I was a kid (and that has been a very long time); guess I'll let a few of them grow and see if my potato beetles are interested.

Who'd have thought!!

macmex · June 24, 2013

I hand pick the potato beetles until help arrives. For the last couple of years our population of assassin bugs has been on the rise. The variety we have is called a wheel bug. Anyway, they make their appearance slightly after the Colorado Potato beetles. Whenever I find a nymph I carry it over to the potato patch where it happily dines on potato beetle larva. After a few weeks we have very little problem with pests. The only down side of this predator is that it is not selective in what critters it eats, and sometimes it gets lazy, camping out on the side of one of my bee hives and eating honey bees! I relocate these renegades. But sometimes they are stubborn and return to the hive... repeatedly. Then I have to kill them. Still, their population is higher this year than any previous year I've seen. They do a great job.

George

http://bugguide.net/node/view/454

June 22, 2013	#1
Durgan Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Brantford, ON, Canada Posts: 1,341	Colorado Potato Beetle http://www.durgan.org/URL/?SIGKH 22 June 2013 Colorado Potato Beetle. The Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata), also known the potato bug, is a pest of potato crops. This potato bug appears every year and can seriously damage a potato crop if not controlled. My method of control is to pick and squash, but I have only 60 plants, and must patrol the bed several times daily. Large growers must use chemicals.Seldom is any grower immune from the potato bug.One fecund adult can lay up to 800 eggs during the season.

June 23, 2013	#2
joseph Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2013 Location: Cache Valley, N/E of The Great Salt Lake Posts: 1,244	I have a wild solanum weed that is more attractive to Colorado Potato Beetles than domesticated plants. My contract with the potato beetles goes something like this: Eat as many weeds as you like. It's a death sentence to get on a domestic solanum. (Squashing experience.) If a tomato, or potato, or eggplant, or pepper is repeatedly attractive to the beetles then I'll chop it out to avoid confusing them. This strategy only works because the beetles live here year round, and because I only sow my own seeds that have shown themselves to be unattractive to the beetles in the past. I figure that I'm modifying the genome of the beetles and of the crops so that they can co-exist. (Perhaps I'm changing the culture of the beetles, but that's too esoteric to think about.) Last edited by joseph; June 23, 2013 at 02:25 PM.

June 23, 2013	#3
spacetogrow Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: MN zone 4 Posts: 359	I'd read that black nightshade can help if planted in con★★★★★★★★ with crops that attract potato beetles. Is that the wild solanum you use? Is it just that the potato bugs are more attracted to the wild nightshade? Black nightshade is one of the weeds that grows in our community garden but it is very scattered. I saved some seeds last year and planted a few near the eggplant this year, but they haven't sprouted yet. Maybe I planted them too deep. I wonder how well they transplant. (I also read that some people eat ripe black nightshade fruits. Is that nuts? Has anyone here tried it?)

June 24, 2013	#4
joseph Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2013 Location: Cache Valley, N/E of The Great Salt Lake Posts: 1,244	My weed that attracts the beetles is Solanum physalifolium.

June 24, 2013	#6
macmex Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Tahlequah, Oklahoma Posts: 102	I hand pick the potato beetles until help arrives. For the last couple of years our population of assassin bugs has been on the rise. The variety we have is called a wheel bug. Anyway, they make their appearance slightly after the Colorado Potato beetles. Whenever I find a nymph I carry it over to the potato patch where it happily dines on potato beetle larva. After a few weeks we have very little problem with pests. The only down side of this predator is that it is not selective in what critters it eats, and sometimes it gets lazy, camping out on the side of one of my bee hives and eating honey bees! I relocate these renegades. But sometimes they are stubborn and return to the hive... repeatedly. Then I have to kill them. Still, their population is higher this year than any previous year I've seen. They do a great job. George http://bugguide.net/node/view/454