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If you ’re trying to grow potatoes ( or any member of the hemlock family unit or solanaceous crops ) , one of the most often encountered problems is the Colorado potato hemipteron or beetle .
Larva and adult beetles prey upon potato plants by eating both the prime and the leaves .
In addition to Solanum tuberosum plant , these rapacious little mallet also lie down waste to other members of the hemlock class , such as common pepper and eggplant , not to mentioncreating tomato plant problems .
When works lose a great number of foliage , their vigor and power to produce fruit are cramp .
These plants will suffer rock-bottom production stage if potato bugs continue to ingest your plant in your commercial potato subject field and nursing home garden .
In this clause , we ’ll plunk late into all the details about the potato bug in garden and how to get rid of potato bugs .
What Is a Potato Bug?
Colorado tater beetle ( leptinotarsa decemlineata ) are most commonly found in the southwestern areas and jumpy mountains of the United States , especially in North America , Nevada , Alaska , and Hawaii .
However , they ’ve also circularise to Europe and Asia as well .
Just do n’t confuse it with Jerusalem crickets . They ’re different insects .
The common contraband and yellow - striped beetle is by far murphy ’ most serious dirt ball pest .
You will set about to see the adults emerge late in the springtime when your potatoes are just beginning to set up themselves and maturate well .
grown potato bug , potato bug , or Jerusalem crickets are loose to spot because they are quite dramatically marked .
They have minute bleak stripes on their wing with a yellowish - orange colour , and their heads are orange with rows of pitch-dark spots .
You ’ll determine adult white potato bugs amongst the foliage of your potato plants . Unless you intervene , you will presently see clusters of reddish potato beetle larvae on the tips of your potato plant branch .
If you are growing eggplant , the white potato vine bug larvae will be hoary . As they get larger , the Jerusalem cricket larvae begin to lark about black dots on their side .
How To Recognize Potato Bug Damage
During the tater bug larval stagecoach , these bugs are athirst little critters , but where do potato hemipteran live ?
They first go for the tastiest and most tippy contribution of plants . you could find them infesting gardens with solanaceous plants or those that are from the nightshade sept .
For this reason , they will commonly eat the bloom buds from potato plant before eating the leaf .
They move very quickly , and if interfered with , they will deprive all foliage from your white potato vine plant .
In addition , white potato microbe terms also greatly scale down yield and kills plants .
It is important to note that this is more likely to happen when you implant a mono - craw .
In other words , if you have all white potato , tomato , or other hemlock - eccentric plants , you are more likely to lose your whole harvest .
Crop Diversity Is Key
If you have a mixed crop , colorado hemipteran may discount some plants and concenter on others , so keeping a diversified constitutive garden is a beneficial idea .
This type of garden ismore likely to draw good louse , which are raw predators of potato hemipteron .
When you have a salutary assortment of beneficial beast in your garden , you could be sure that Colorado potato beetle eggs , larvae , and even grownup beetle will be consumed .
You want to have agood mix of ladybeetle , land beetle , and small white Anglo-Saxon Protestant . In this way , you could be certain that testicle , larvae , and beetle will have to contend to survive .
The Life Cycle of The Colorado Potato Beetle
grownup potato bugs can exist through the winter by hiding under the bark of Tree or other covers to protect them from stop dead .
When the weather warm up up in the eye of the springtime , they do out of hiding and seek out white potato plant or other poison parsley - type plant .
Once they find the character of plants they need , they eat and mate . Then , female in their grownup life pose orange - yellow egg on the underside of leave over a 4 to 5 - workweek stop .
The testicle hatch within a couple of week , and the fourth instar larvae will begin feeding on the plant . This decease on for another couple of calendar week until the larvae become a pupa .
From distaff beetle laying eggs to the sentence the pupae become an adult , it can take 30 - 45 day .
You may detect them already present in a potato field by midsummer .
The amount of meter is qualified upon the weather . In cooler weather , this transformation takes longer . In tender weather , the total process usually takes about 30 sidereal day .
Moreover , potato mallet overwinter in the dirt , garden debris , surreptitious , or field tolerance and emerge in the spring .
When you hold up in a warm climate , you may get a double dose of Jerusalem cricket every year !
When the cycle of metamorphosis accept only 30 Day , it is entirely potential for it to be completed double in a growing season .
Related Reading :
How To Keep Your Potato Plants, Eggplants, Peppers & Tomatoes Relatively Free Of Potato Beetles
So , how to kill potato germ ?
Organic control is the most effective mannequin of pest management . You might think spray pesticides would be a good idea , but you ’d be awry .
You will have far more success fighting off white potato vine glitch with anarsenalof rude weapons .
There are a bit of organic way of life of controlling Jerusalem crickets and maybe some other pests such as tomato fruitworm , aphids , and others .
Among them let in :
These natural solutionsare far better than chemical insect powder because , as fourth dimension has passed , the Colorado white potato cricket has developed commercial-grade insecticide electrical resistance from a vast majority of brands .
For this reason , it is more effectual touse a variety of constitutive methodsto get the potato germ off - sentry go .
One example is using all-important oils such as neem fossil oil , which is an good root against garden pests .
Diatomaceous ground also greatly eliminates worm and other harmful dirt ball plague in your potato battleground .
Attract Helper Beneficials
The best good fauna or natural opposition can help you in your fight against potato glitch .
What eats potato bugs ? Here are example :
you’re able to draw in a batch of beneficial insects for biological control by institute flowers on your tater crop .
In addition to insects that will assist you fight Irish potato beetle infestation , planting flowers will alsoattract pollinators such as butterfliesand bees , so it ’s a winnings - win all around .
Moreover , some good worm feed on utter roots , decaying industrial plant thing , constitutive thing , and small insects . They also help improve soil aeration .
How To Get Rid Of Colorado Potato Beetle
Along with mold an alliance with beneficial fauna , there are a phone number of steps that you’re able to take to keep Jerusalem cricket at bay .
Among them are :
1 . Rotate your crops . This is a very effective way to dumbfound the Colorado white potato beetle and prevent them from being able to find your crops . It ’s a unspoilt idea to understudy grain with genus Tuber to prevent the potato bug from establishing itself .
2 . Dig trenches between your row of white potato plants . These trenches should be a foot wide and dug at a 45 - degree slant . Line each trench with black plastic . When the Jerusalem cricket descend into the oceanic abyss , they will be trapped .
3 . When your young potato plant have emergedand are growing well , mulch around them with drinking straw or hay . Do this early enough that Jerusalem crickets have not yet found your plants . When they come looking and make their mode across the straw or hay , they will probably meet one of the born predators you have cultivated .
4 . apply float row cover to protect your potatoesonce you have mulch them . spread out them up once a calendar week and examine your plants to be sure that white potato vine hemipterous insect larvae or adults are not present . If they are , hit them by hand .
5 . Keep poulet , ducks , geese and/or guineas . Once your potato plant life are pretty mature ( one foot magniloquent ) , you may let your flock wander through them from fourth dimension to time to pick off potato bugs .
6 . Carry a bucket of warm soapy waterwith you when you test your white potato plants . It ’s also a good idea to carry a short mirror with you so that you’re able to easy examine the underside of your potato leaves .
If you see larvae or grownup mallet , transfer them and drop them in the soapy body of water . Doing this every Clarence Day will greatly slim down the number of potato beetles in your garden . Using an insecticidal soap is a unspoilt potato bug killer and will make killing tab glitch , sow hemipteran , and potato bugs easier .
7 . Plant potato beetle - resistive varietiesof Irish potato such as “ King Harry . ” This type of murphy works has a great many leaf haircloth , making them unwanted to the potato hemipteron . check that to also cleanse up weeds that can become a food root for these pests .
8 . fuse buckwheat plants into your garden . The Jerusalem cricket does not wish them , but predatory wasps do . The blooming of the buckwheat plant will attract these good garden worm at just the right time to help you battle Jerusalem cricket .
9 . If you see mickle of larvae on your plants , you may require tospray with an organic spinosad insecticide . This organic pesticide is raise using fermentation .
It is good for indoor and out-of-door plants , fruit tree , prime gardens , lawn , and veggie garden . It is name as safe for exercise in organic nutrient production by the USDA National Organic Program .
Anothernatural murphy mallet control option is B thuringiensis .
Related : hear thuringiensis ( bt ) here .
10 . continue adding uncouth mulch around your potato industrial plant throughout the growing season . This can be stubble or hay or even grass trim or leafage . This type of mulch supply a habitat for born potato mallet predatory animal .
Potato Beetles Are Garden Enemy #1
Because they are so adaptable , regurgitate so prolifically , and wreak havoc with all kinds of hemlock harvest , Jerusalem crickets are the scourge of many a gardener ’s existence .
The challenge of cope with their infamous way has spur many a scientist into action .
you could find peck of interesting information on the websites of several major universities . to boot , there is even a website dedicated exclusively to the contemplation of the Jerusalem cricket mallet trouble .
It isPotatobeetle.org , where you will notice article , tips , studies , anecdotal info , and even potato beetle haiku and artwork submitted by young organic gardener in the making .
The main thing you should commemorate when battling Jerusalem cricket is that you will believably never overcome them .
However , if you adopt a Wile E. Coyote sort of access to them and keep devising one fiendish design of blast after another , you have a good chance of keep back the bugs on white potato vine plants at bay and induce a act of fun doing it !
