Colorado Potato Beetle: America’s Most Notorious Potato Pest

When growing potatoes in the United States, you are almost guarante to fight with the Colorado potato beetle. This striped insect has become the main character in a story about its insatiable appetite and its ability to destroy potato crops all over the country. In the following blog post, we will try to reveal the nature of the Colorado potato beetle, find the answer to the question “what do potato bugs eat,” explore the length of the Colorado potato beetle destruction, and introduce the ways on how to get rid of potato bugs using the proven strategies. You’re probably a home gardener or a commercial grower, so the best way to secure your garden is to learn the concept of this pest.

Meet the Colorado Potato Beetle

The Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) is a very small bug of about 3/8 inch that has a very bright yellow body with ten black stripes on its wing covers that make up the beetle. The Rockies are their place of origin, and this pest has been spreading rapidly since the mid-19th century and is now found in all the potato fields here in North America. It is well known that adult beetles and their larvae are very hungry creatures; thus, they can never be stopped from feeding on potato crops over and over after each growing season.

What Do Potato Bugs Eat?

Having in mind before, what do potato bugs eat? The problem is: more than just potatoes. Their most preferred food is the soft leaves of the potato plant, but still, the number of the Colorado potato beetle population will not be satisfied until they also eat all the other plants from the nightshade family, such as the eggplant, the tomato, and the pepper. They will not leave anything out of their diet, so they will eat:

• Potato leaves and tubers
• Eggplant foliage
• Tomato plants
• Pepper plants

Small bugs are eaten by them sometimes, and in the most extreme cases, even their young are eaten.

Colorado Potato Beetle Damage

The effect of the damage caused by the Colorado potato beetle can be quite severe. The adults and larvae feed with their chewing mouth parts; they, therefore, do not only destroy plant leaves but dirty the foliage with their excrements. This is why some action as to prevent such kind of damage is require.

If a heavy infestation is not control, it can result in complete defoliation of plants, thus:

• Reducing photosynthesis and causing only weakened plant growth
• Lowering yields or even having no crops at all
• Enabling diseases to be easily contract and increasing environmental stress to increase

Potato plants can tolerate defoliation to some extent—up to 30% before flowering—however, only about 10% once tubers start developing. Exceeding these values of defoliation, the damage caused by the Colorado potato beetle can have the effect of greatly reducing both the quality and quantity of the expected harvest.

How to Get Rid of Potato Bugs

Since many chemical pesticides are not successful in controlling the pests, a strategy for how to get rid of potato bugs that involves multiple points is necessary. Here are the most efficient strategies:

1. Crop Rotation: Crop placement of potato plantations annually to make the life cycle of the beetle more difficult and diminish the population of those beetles that survived the winter.
2. Plant Resistant Varieties: Plant varieties of potato that have develop as resistant to the Colorado potato beetle, like the Yukon Gold or the Russet Burbank.
3. Handpicking: In the case of a small garden, an effective method is to do a check-up of the plants regularly and, through manual work, extract the adult beetles, larvae, and egg clusters, then place them into the soapy water.
4. Biological Controls: The application of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) or the introduction of beneficial insects that prey on the larvae before their adult stage.
5. Use of Bio-Pesticides: Agents with spinosad or neem oil are not only good but also do not cause the death of beneficial insects. Change products to avoid resistance.
6. Mulching and Barriers: Employing row covers or plastic mulch will act as a barrier, thus preventing the beetles from entering the plant.

The conjunction of these ways is the most efficient means of dealing with Colorado potato beetle numbers and also protects from serious Colorado potato beetle injury.

Conclusion

The Colorado potato beetle has proven a tough enemy to any farmer who cultivates potatoes or other crops of this kind in the United States. It is important to understand what do potato bugs eat and be able to identify damaged plants due to the impact of Colorado potato beetles so that you will have the best as first reaction to safeguard your garden or farm. Through a combination of cultural, biological, and chemical controls, you will bound to learn how to eliminate potato bugs and protect your yield.

To get more tips, advice from experts and vet recommendations on pest control, visit SayNoPest and enjoy a pesticide-free, healthy potato.