Colorado Potato Beetle
 

Most years the Colorados can be a real pest on our Eggplants. But we usually don't plant out a whole lot of them compared to our other crops.

This year there are Colorados all over the tomato plants we managed to get in about a month ago. Some plants are going to be defoliated soon if we don't do something.

The problem is WHAT.

Most insecticides work only so-so on Colorados.

Does anyone have anything they've used with decent effect on Colorado larvae ??

Carol

I have not had these, but I did come across this pretty good
article with some strategies that have been effective:

[url]http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/5301/control-colorado-potato-beetle-with-a-mix-of-strategies[/url]

I read the article that Dice linked to and I agree with some of the controls and not others.

When you first see the beetles/damage go thru your tomato plants and try to remove them by hand. They have this nasty habit of playing dead and dropping from the plant so beware of that. It mnight be best to use a can with kerosene in it or whatever, and try to tap them into the can before the play dead and fall off.

Then look for the clusters of orange eggs on the backs of leaves, take off those leaves and stomp on them. QED.

While lots of critter controls were mentioned in that article I honestly don't know of anyone who has tried them and given any feedback.

If you have too many plants to groom manually then I suggest that you ASAP get the BT product referred to in the article, often soild as Colorado Potato Beetle Beater ( cute, eh?) b'c that will kill the emerging larvae which are the form of the beetle that does the most damage.

And 5% Rotenone usually kills the adult beetles, but note that's 5%, not the common 2% that's usually sold.

You sepcifically asked about the larvae and I can tell you that the BT product WILL kill them; they ingest it, the Xstals in the BT poke holes in their guts and they blow up, if you want me to be specific.:)

Thanks guys.

Yes I asked about the larvae as yes they are the most destructive. They are also the only things I've seen while I'm cultivating right now. If there are adults (there have to be) they are hiding right now.

While we often just "walk and squish" in the eggplant, there is way too many tomato plants to do that and they are spread around too much. Not all over but here and there. There are 63 - 350 ft rows with about 8,000+ plants. The larvae are mainly in the 1/2 of the field we got planted almost a month ago.

I'll have to mention to Hubby about the 5% rather than 2%. He usually takes care of the fertilizer and chemical issues here but will ask me to search for info if we are having problems with something.

I know way back when the BT for Colorados first came out, it was rather expensive and didn't work very well. I'm glad to hear that what's on the market now is more effective.

I haven't had a chance to look at that link yet.

Thanks for the info.

Carol

I now read that article and also feel that several of the suggestions are less than great.

Specifically the suggestion about rotation. We do that. The tomatoes this year are in last year's corn field. The eggplant from last year was at least 200 yards away from this spot. Last year we had a little bit of Colorados in the tomatoes but not enough to actually do anything about them. In the eggplant, yes we sprayed several times. I can't recall EVER seeing this many hatched larvae this early, especially in a cold to cool year.

As far as the Btt, I think the larvae that are there now are way beyond the "new hacth" stage. They are getting fairly large and fat. At the "big-ugly" stage.

The suggestion about "lady bugs" tho is good IF you spread them early enough. We did that several years and while i wasn't sure they ate the eggs, I could see that they seemed to eat the newly hatched larvae. They don't get them all, but get enough to keep things at a tolerable level.

Hubby is monitoring right now and will probably spray Saturday when no one else is around as the chemicals he has on hand have a 12 hour re-entry restriction.

Some years we never have to spray the tomatoes at all. We aren't "organic" but have been using less and less chemicals the last several years. But this year the cucumber beetle and now the Colorados have been eating us out of house and home. While I wish there was another way, we have to do what works to save a crop without bankrupting us. So far we haven't found any good organic methods for the cucumber beetles and only so-so methods (chemical OR organic) for Colorados.

Thanks,
Carol

Carol
I have noticed a large crop of these darn beetles this year also. Luckily I only have 400 plants so not as hard to control (hopefully) as your situation. There seems to be such a large population this year my local news actually ran a story. From it the solutions other than the "squish" method were:
[COLOR=navy]Phil Pellitteri, UW Entomologist, says, “Most of the older chemicals such as Sevin do not work. Only three products will help homeowners combat the problem, the new Ortho Max with acetamiprid; BT, san diego strain, will kill small larvae; and spinosad products work best on the young larvae but is not as effective on adults.” Fourth instar ( larger larvae) are much harder to kill. Please read pesticide labels carefully and follow the instructions.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]Good luck to you! WI is challenging again this year!!![/COLOR]

another link: [URL]http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/coloradopotato.html[/URL]

[B]WI is challenging again this year[/B]

Boy ain't that the truth !!

If it isn't the cruddy weather, it's the bugs.

Carol

I have no advise to give you but just wanted to wish you all the best.

When growing potatoes in Wisconsin, we got the darn beetles on potatoes and some years on tomatoes too. I bought some BT product targeted to Colorado beetles from Farm'n Fleet. It worked on the larvae and the adults we squished.
I learned from my first year to look for them and started sraying the BT as soon as I found first mating adults.

I hope you'll find a product, which will kill those pests. Colorado Potato beetles do not survive the winter here, but every summer some of them come on some vegetable shipments from south and try to find a new homes on potato fields. The Finnish Food Safety Authority has a website for reporting any Colorado Potato beetle sightings and I am on lookout for any striped beetles on my plants.[COLOR=Black][U][URL="http://www.evira.fi/portal/en/"]
[/URL][/U][/COLOR]