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
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