Fight Colorado potato beetles: simply shake off and collect
Created: 06/27/2022, 18:34
By: Ines Alms
Colorado potato beetles are every vegetable gardener's nightmare.
Before they destroy the harvest, the pests should be found and dealt with quickly.
After all, they are easy to recognize, the Colorado potato beetle: they have ten black and yellow vertical stripes on their back.
However, if left unchecked, they will eat away the leaves and stalks of the potato plant within a few weeks.
Fewer potatoes are formed and the harvest falls.
Fight Colorado potato beetles: simply shake off and collect
The Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) is a dreaded pest.
(Iconic image) © Hanke/Imago
The
potato beetle
(Leptinotarsa decemlineata) is a feared pest in the vegetable garden.
Rightly so: A female beetle can lay up to 1200 eggs within two months.
After about ten days, the red-black larvae hatch and, like the adult beetles, attack the potato plant from the end of May.
Because the leaves are not green, it is difficult for the photosynthesis to take place, which is necessary for the formation of the potato tubers.
So the harvest is looking bad.
As recommended by the North Rhine-Westphalia Chamber of Agriculture, the simplest and safest method is to collect and destroy the beetles that migrate to the garden in spring to lay their eggs.
At least finding the animals is not very difficult: If you shake the potato plants, the pests fall to the ground like windfall.
However, it is best to get rid of the voracious beetles in the
larval stage
, with which the hobby gardener should proceed in the same way.
They too must be collected and best disposed of in the residual waste, otherwise they will eat their way through the potato stocks.
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Finding and removing or crushing the elongated
Colorado potato beetle eggs
would be even better .
These are yellowish-orange in color and are always deposited in larger groups by the female Colorado potato beetle on the underside of the plants' leaves.
However, these should not be confused with the eggs of the beneficial ladybug, which tend to be yellow.
Another possible natural pest control is a decoction of tansy, which the Colorado potato beetle doesn't like at all.
If you spray the infested plant with it, the bugs should fall to the ground.
If you are looking for the larvae or beetles, you should also take a look at your
tomatoes, peppers or aubergines
, because the pests also like to eat these vegetables.
If you grow a mixed culture in the vegetable patch in your garden, you also reduce the risk of pest infestation.
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