Colorado Beetles

10 years ago

No Colorado beetles in our garden this year; never before. I grow two crops, 50 plants each, totally organic. Anybody experience the same? If so, what do you think is happening? Regards, Peter.

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Comments (5)

wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
10 years ago
I killed 5 adults very early on [and an egg clutch] on volunteer potato plants. That was it. I watch for those early emerging over wintering adults. That is my part of prevention.
pnbrown
10 years ago
I had them pretty bad, so I don't know what is happening. certainly where and when I have smaller plantings the infestation tends to be less severe. When I have them in soil high in SOM and fertility usually the infestation is less.
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if you type "floating row covers for potatoes" in the search box above, the page's 3rd link down has the most recent discussion on this topic. some people have had success; i didn't like them much. if you can keep them well anchored to soil level, and tall and wide enough so that the growing stems don't poke holes in them, they might work well. in my area (5 ny) the beetles come out in early to mid june i think, and continue laying eggs for a few weeks. after i stopped using row covers i started scraping the eggs off the bottoms of the leaves, with excellent results. i usually plant 40 or more plants and it takes me a few hours at one sitting, then another hour or 2 a week or so later. i check every leaf, but it's not as daunting as it sounds. the eggs are bright orange and can be seen easily when you hold up a stem. good luck
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Jan, Last night I saw one more adult Colorado Potato Beetle on a potato plant, and I left it for Mr. (or Ms.) Turtle. I hope he or she found it and ate it. I rely heavily (almost entirely) on beneficial birds, reptiles, amphibians and insects to control pest insects in my garden. It works. I know it works. Sometimes it is very hard--even exceptionally hard--to be be patient and wait for the process to work, but I really do try. Here's another example of how I didn't wait, and then regretted it. I overwintered some potted angel's trumpets (both brugmansias and angel trumpets) in my barn/garage last winter. It was the first time I'd overwintered them there, having previously kept them either inside (but there's too many for that now, and they are too big) or by overwintering them in the tornado shelter in a dormant state. It stayed warm enough here this past winter that the angel's trumpets remained leafed out, although a couple of them dropped some leaves when we when down to 18 degrees a couple of nights, but then leafed right out again. A lot of them kept blooming into December and January and others started blooming in February. Every morning (unless it was very cold), I'd open the garage door and let the sunshine come in, or I'd drag them out into the sunshine. One day in Feb. or earliest March, I noticed one plant was covered in aphids. Since I assumed lady bugs were still hibernating because it was still pretty chilly, I sprayed the plant with neem oil. (I did look for lady bugs and didn't find any on any of the angel's trumpets before I sprayed.) The neem oil took care of almost all the aphids. Two days later a mama lady bug showed up, and within a couple of days we had lady bug larvae everywhere. So, you see, if I had been patient for a day or two longer, the lady bugs would have shown up and I wouldn't have had to spray the neem oil. I really need to work on being more patient. I'll try to write later today or tonight when I come inside from the garden about how to attract more beneficial insects to your garden, and why you'd want them there. I need to hurry up and get outside now before it is too hot to be productive out there. You also can search this forum by typing "beneficial insects" into the search box and read old threads too. I know I've written about beneficials a gazillion times. Dawn
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Dawn, Thanks so VERY much for the infromation. I have been hand picking the beetles and thier eggs for weeks to keep my potatoes growing. But I just can not seem to get all thier larva eggs! I will keep up with that and tey the BTSD and keep my fingers crossed. Thanks again for all the great information!
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naturegirl_2007 5B SW Michigan
10 years ago
What's happening? Here's some observations and ideas that may or may not be the reason:

We had a prolonged period of heavy rain and totally saturated soil this spring in Michigan. I've read reports linking this to a large reduction in Japanese Beetle emergence in the summer. Supposedly the huge amount of water in the soil killed the overwintering young in the soil. I don't know if this idea was from experts who knew with certainty that the wet soil was a killer or if it was speculation by those observing fewer JBs in their gardens.

I do know that at our home it was impossible to walk in the yard and garden without sinking down a few inches into the muck for several weeks. Rivers were at the highest flood levels ever recorded. It makes sense to me that insects overwintering in the soil (including CPBs) could have been killed/drowned. We had GREATLY reduced numbers of JBs at our home garden. Others in the area reported similar reductions. At another location where I help with a garden in much sandier, well draining soil, JB numbers were down A LOT but not as much as in my heavier soil area.

We had no Colorado Potato Beetles. However, while they do show up in small numbers most years, they have always been easy to control with minimal hand picking.

Just some ideas....no scientific study for proof. And no idea if you are in an area that had prolonged saturated soil this spring. But I know I sure enjoyed NOT hand picking the pests this year!
wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
10 years ago
I had a drier spring in 2012 and saw 5 Japanese Beetles. This spring was wetter and I saw 24 JBs.

ps, I trapped an estimated 270,000 in 2003 and killed hundreds more that year.
beeman_gardener
10 years ago
Potato beetles live in the soil. So if you were diligent last year and didn't allow any to mature, then it stands to reason there won't be any this year.
We also know that they 'fly in' from surrounding areas, perhaps your neighbours were more diligent also.
Lucky you!!!!!
We tend to forget, this years actions affect next years bugs?

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Colorado Beetles

Comments (5)

wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana

pnbrown

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naturegirl_2007 5B SW Michigan

wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana

beeman_gardener

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