Colorado Potato Beetles invade

soder33 · Jun 7, 2012

I have an investation of Colorado Potato Beetles in my garden this year. They are eating the leaves of my potatoes so fast that they look like sticks in some areas.
What do you do to control them? Thanks

bjb in TX from Ne · Jun 7, 2012

Organic:
Try knocking them into a bucket with about an inch of water with a bit of dish soap and drown them.

Non-Organic:
Chemicals ?Sevin?

jackinok · Jun 7, 2012

sevin dust,or wettable powder mixed and sprayed on, is what i always use.

Traditional Farmer · Jun 7, 2012

Get a handfull of the beetles and grind them up in a blender and then strain the 'juice' add some water and spray the mix on the potatoes.

Anonymous-0 · Jun 7, 2012

Bonide brand colorado potato beetle spray concentrate. mix with water- excellant product. got it from our local farm store. active ingredient is spinosad. last year i put several different kinds of powder-spray and didn't work. this year i sprayed twice since april and have no problem with them.

OliverGuy · Jun 7, 2012

I sent my 3 kids through the patch for a swipe off and stomp treatment, how about that for organic!

tjdub · Jun 7, 2012

I just walk the rows every 3 days and flip over leaves looking for their blaze orange egg patches and scrape them off before they hatch. If any do hatch, I squish them before they can turn into adults. I only grow about 300ft of potatoes though. It's not like this method scales up very well, but it works and it's free.

DanD · Jun 7, 2012

Here"s what we do. There are three problems. The beetles the larva and the eggs. We go through and squash all three and then either spot spray the infestations of small larva that are hard to get... Or if things are bad, spray it all. We spray "pyganic" which is pyrenthian based. It"s organic and it"s lethal to CPBs. Used it for 4 years and they aren"t immune yet. Good luck..

RayP(MI) · Jun 7, 2012

Around here, - potato country, they"re immune to about every chemical that"s been tried. BTOs around here are resorting to a mixture of several chemicals, most not availible to us regular people, only custom applicators. Most is applied commercially by air these days. WE"re in the flight path for the local airport - 10 miles due West... Air is constantly has a plane or two in it.

They scoff att Sevin!

showcrop · Jun 7, 2012

That was one of my jobs when I was a kid. probably staring at about seven. I would take a large tin can with kerosene or gasoline, I expect most likely gasoline and knock them into it along with any leaves that had eggs on them. My recollection is that we always had them.

Anonymous-0 · Jun 7, 2012

Drown them????? You better hope PETA doesn't find out.

Greg1959 · Jun 7, 2012

I quit growing potatoes...that was my fix. By the time I paid $28.00 for 50lb of seed taters, cost of fertilizer and pesticide, it was too much money to waste on feeding Tater Bugs. I can go to Save-a-lot and buy 50lb bag of good sized eating potatoes for $11.25.

Lou from Wi. · Jun 7, 2012

Wondering if that solution is for mixing margaritas, or gravy for mashed potato's and fried chicken (Sunday dinners)? LOU.

Traditional Farmer · Jun 7, 2012

Guineas love them also

Greg1959 · Jun 7, 2012

Bought 10 Guineas 4 years ago, just for this purpose. Instead, they stayed on my porch and roof and covered it with their by-product.

Wound up...just shooten' them things.

36 Coupe · Jun 7, 2012

You forget that 1 pound of seed potatoes will produce 10 pounds of new potatoes.A test I ran on Red Gold produced 18 pounds from 1 pound of seed.Another problem is most people are unaware that new sprays offer good control.Admire is expensive.I paid 60 bucks for a pint that lasted 5 years.Admire has been in use for over 10 years.It is now approved for many vegetables.My last pint of Nuprid cost 38 bucks.Admire and Nuprid are sprayed on the seed before it is covered.

Traditional Farmer · Jun 7, 2012

Sounds like you got Rhode Island Reds not Guineas

Greg1959 · Jun 7, 2012

LOL! Naw, the Rhode Island Red, White Rocks and Pearl White Leghorns were kept in the pens. This year I'm trying Buff Orpingtons.

agonair · Jun 7, 2012

Difficult to kill. To prevent, rotate your potato plantings to a different location in your patch next year or lay out for a couple of years. I had them real bad when I planted my potatoes in the same location, but when I started plant rotation they never caused much trouble.

tjdub · Jun 7, 2012

I've got a dozen Guineas. They live with the chickens and unlike the chickens, they do spend a lot of time in the garden (which is a good distance from the coop). Never seen them patrolling my potatoes for me though, they prefer to dig around and wreck other vegetables while dusting themselves. More harm than good, in my opinion. Wish they would stay out. If it was a potato-only garden, they would probably be OK, though.

RwEny · Jun 8, 2012

I used an organic product called Safer. It worked very well for me.

36 Coupe · Jun 9, 2012

I use spinosad on the baby bugs when they show up.No more stripped plants.Nuprid sprayed on the seed pieces gives good protection.I am amazed the some posters on here dont seem to know that there are sprays that work.I started using these chemicals over 10 years ago.It costs about 10 bucks a year to spray my potatoes.

Colorado Potato Beetles invade

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