This is a real disaster for our potato plots - the Colorado potato beetle. Fighting him takes away gardeners a lot of time, energy and nerves! What are the best remedies for the Colorado potato beetle? What methods of struggle? How to fight? I think that everyone who grows potatoes has tried many methods, tools, drugs against “colorado,” as we usually call it. Manually collected, poisoned with chemistry, and this pest did not care. You miss a little bit - instead of green succulent leaves of potatoes - gnawed branches, and sometimes only the stumps of potato stalks will leave the Colorado potato beetle.
Colorado potato beetle, photo and description
The Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) is an oval-convex insect that is easily recognizable by five black stripes on top of each of the yellow elytra. Adult Colorado pests hibernate deep underground, appear from above towards the end of spring. Their appetite is just brutal. Having appeared, insects, moving on the ground, pass more than one kilometer in a day - they are looking for food sources. At the same time, they feed mainly on the tender leaves of young potatoes, but for all nightshade (tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, others) they are very dangerous. How does the pest move? In the early spring, crawling out of the soil where he spent the winter, he can only crawl - he has no strength to fly yet. At the same time, the fight is effective enough, as it will not allow adults to gain strength for reproduction.
Colorado potato beetle, photo:
The female can lay up to five hundred bright yellow-orange eggs in small groups of 15-25 pieces. Plump orange larvae hatch from these eggs, which cause the most damage to the foliage of the potato. Larvae go through four stages of development in 2-3 weeks and, finally, crawl underground for pupation. In these 15-20 days, they can destroy the entire potato crop.
There are a great many chemical agents for the fight against the Colorado pest, they are quite easy to use, you just need to follow some rules. We will talk about them later.
Folk remedies for the Colorado potato beetle
I prefer less harmful to people means or methods of struggle. There are a lot of them too. But I also use chemicals. Sometimes it is impossible to do without them. Best of all is the integrated use of such methods, means of struggle.
Mulch and potatoes
By the way, oddly enough, mulching straw between rows of potatoes helps not only fight, suppress weeds, not only protects young tubers from sunlight, preserves moisture, but creates a habitat for predator insects that eat the pest, namely, ground beetles, praying mantises, and god cows, some species of spiders, others.
Bedbug perillus
Look at the photo above, how cleverly the bedbug perillus became the winner.
Good remedy? But there is one complication - the perillus bug (the territory of its habitat America) does not tolerate our frosts, plus it cannot find food for itself in the spring, before the appearance of eggs or larvae of the Colorado potato beetle. All attempts to breed him have so far been unsuccessful. Probably, it is worth studying our domestic insects, not poisoning them, but creating conditions for them to live.
Plants against the Colorado potato beetle - folk remedies
Herbal remedies are effective enough to control the pest. There are some plants that the pest cannot tolerate. For example, catnip, tansy, sage. Sow them between rows or around the perimeter of the plot - the Colorado pest will ignore your potatoes. Just do not forget to mow or cut the tops, for example, tansy during flowering. These plants must not be allowed to shed seeds. Otherwise, you yourself will plant weeds in your garden.
And recently I read this information: a pest is scared away by a flower of matthiol. There are other names for this plant - left-handed bicorn or "night violet". The author of this means of control assures that the potato plot will be clean from Colorado pests, from its larvae. It is enough to sow one row of matthiola through five rows of potatoes. Sowing a night violet between the rows, you “kill two birds with one stone”: protect the potatoes, while enjoying the delicate aroma of lilac-pink fragrant flowers.
In this (2015) year, I decided to try using another plant from this harmful insect, its larvae - beans. I read that if you plant beans on a potato field, then they will not be. There was even a photo - bushes clean without insects, beans grow nearby. And now look below - this is my photo! Unfortunately, the beans aren’t interfering with the beetles near my bug ... The picture shows that the bush is surrounded by three (!) Shoots of beans - accidentally dropped three seeds instead of one - the result is the same anyway: adult individuals crawled along this bush, the testicles were laid, from which hatched red larvae. Now you need to either collect them or process them.
Pest traps
Some potato farmers use such a means of control: traps along the border of the potato field. This is a trench trap method. But this method will be effective in the spring if garden crops were planted here for several years, other than potatoes or nightshade. If you plant potatoes in one place every year, this means of control will not work in the spring. Adult individuals, especially overwintered, are poorly destroyed by insecticides. These traps are effective against overwintered populations of insects after creeping out in spring from congestion sites, as well as during autumn migration to wintering sites.
Colorado beetles usually choose sunny places facing the south or west for wintering, for example, a hedge. They can winter where they found food in the summer, developed.
The essence of the method is as follows: along the perimeter of the potato field a trench breaks out with a single-body plow or cultivator with a V-shaped knife. The walls of the trench should be steep. Its bottom is covered with a rigid black plastic film 1.2-1.8 m wide. The depth should be at least 30 cm, and the width at the top should be from 15 to 60 cm. The inclination of the side walls is 45-90 degrees.
The earth, taken out of the trench, is laid on top, like a parapet, and leveled. The film is pressed tightly against the walls, the bottom of the furrow without folds. On the bottom of the trench, on the sides of the film, make small holes through 3 meters to drain rainwater. Butts carefully close up.
Once inside the trench, the beetles try to get out of it through the drainage holes, but under the film (there is damp) fungi develop that are harmful to the pest. The film is covered with a thin layer of dust, which prevents insects from crawling out of the trap.
Insects caught in the trench die from dehydration in a week. In the spring, 75% of overwintered individuals creep across the territory, getting there. Since pests after hibernation can only walk (they can’t fly yet - they don’t have the strength), then, looking for food, they must cross this ditch, where they roll down the steep sides of the film, die under the hot sun.
The success of this method of combating the Colorado potato beetle depends on the correct choice of the location of the traps in relation to the wintering places of the insect, their readiness in the spring before pests.
Another way to fight is a homemade bait trap. This method can also be classified as safe, since when you use it, your planting and soil will not be affected. In the spring, when the potatoes have already been planted, and there is a week left until seedling, it is necessary to cut the old tubers into slices or halves, place in a solution of chlorophos - soak there for a day. Then scatter the bait around the site. It is better to do it when it is cloudy, or in the evening, because under the rays of the sun, the cut slices quickly dry out, cease to attract the beetle. The pest attacks the poisoned potato, dies. The same operation should be carried out in the fall, when the crop is fully harvested, the tops have dried, but the beetle has not yet gone to winter.
One craftsman, my fellow countryman, made a special scoop trap for the Colorado potato beetle. He took the roofing iron, made a scoop of it, 45 cm long and 50 cm wide, 50 cm wide. He attached a handle to the end according to his height. And in front I raised the edge by 2 cm so that the insects would not crawl out of the scoop. He took the device, the whole family in an hour and a half processed 15 (!) Hundred parts of potatoes, shaking insects, their larvae directly into the scoop. Then they specially weighed the “harvest” - 4 kg 700 g collected this muck! This method of using a homemade device to fight a bug has proven to be very effective.
Biological products
Recently, information has appeared about the new organic biological product "Colorado potato beetle NO." But on our shelves I did not see him, there is no experience of use. The manufacturer of the product is the Breton company B-actif (France). The drug contains Indian Azadirachta oil. A special anti-pest formula has been developed. Composition of completely organic content - safe for humans, animals. The drug has a deterrent effect that pheromones provide, blocks the reproductive function of adults, and prevents the development of larvae. Need 3 treatments per season. An aqueous solution of the drug is prepared in a ratio of 1:40. The first is the treatment of the hole with a manual sprayer before planting potatoes. The second is the treatment of the first seedlings. The third - two weeks after the second. For one treatment of a hundred parts of the earth, 10 ml of biological product is enough. Therefore, for the season - 30 ml is enough (for 1 hundred parts).
How to poison the Colorado potato beetle, chemicals
I will tell you only about those chemicals that I used myself. As you know, there are a lot of chemical agents to combat the Colorado potato beetle, which one is the most effective, you will not understand right away. It is difficult to navigate the whole variety of drugs. Also, manufacturers do not always openly report side effects of a drug.
Bordeaux pest mixture
Vegetable grower V.F. Chicken from Art. Varenikovskaya shares the following experience in processing potatoes from pests. The method is simple. When the potato has sprouted, has a height of 15-25 cm (depending on the variety), you need to process the plants with Bordeaux liquid. The first treatment is carried out with a 1-1.5 percent solution (100-150 g of lime + 100-150 g of copper sulfate + 10 l of water). The second treatment - after 12 days with a 2% solution (200 g of lime + 200 g of copper sulfate + 10 l of water). You will not have problems with the Colorado potato beetle. If a third treatment is required, make it a 2% solution too. In addition, you also get rid of potato disease - late blight.
Prestige - my review of the experience of using the drug
This disinfectant contains two active substances. One is the fungicide-pencicuron, which protects plants from disease. Another - the insecticide-imidacloprid already acts directly on pests. This tool has an anti-stress effect, in addition, it stimulates the growth of plants.
In 2012, I purchased Prestige dressing for seed tubers. I must say that the drug is not cheap - I hesitated for a long time before I decided to buy. The instruction says that it effectively protects the planting of potatoes from wireworm, Colorado potato beetle, bear, aphid carriers of viruses, rhizoctoniosis, and common scab. Manufacturers of the drug advise to process potato tubers in boxes, nets, and then shake them so that the drug is evenly distributed over the tubers. But my seed potatoes had already sprouted; shaking it was not practical - the sprouts could break off. Processed, sprayed sprouted tubers already in the hole. The preparation is bright raspberry-colored. When preparing the solution for processing, the color of the solution becomes not so bright, but still my potatoes were rosy.
The protective period from pests is 50 days, and from diseases - 40 days from the date of treatment. After this, the drug decomposes into non-toxic compounds. The instruction warns that after processing potatoes can only be eaten 50 days after planting. This, of course, is alarming.
But the numerous reviews of the manufacturers that I found on the Internet convince that the drug from the seed tuber rises along the stem to the leaves. In the process of photosynthesis, the Prestige drug does not take part, which means it can not get into young tubers.
So, I processed the seed potato “Prestige” from the pest. And ... forgot about him. Then she saw that the neighbor in the country is processing her potatoes - she decided to check her. What was my surprise when I saw a lot of dead adult beetles under the bushes of potatoes! There were a lot of them!
I did not expect such an effect!
There is always a garden work - I found many other things for myself. Polola, spud, watered ...
Then came the time for the young potato. I counted on the calendar not 50 days, as the instruction recommends, but 60 - just in case. Imagine my surprise when I again saw pests of different ages on my potatoes. This meant that the action of the Prestige preparation was over - potato leaves again became edible for pests and their larvae. Of course, the potatoes have already grown, the tubers have started, they have poured - the pest did not pose any danger to the crop, but ... the sight was not pleasant. After all, these insects will leave for the winter - then they will appear again in the spring.
So, by experience, I came to the conclusion that the Prestige dressing agent does not save potatoes from the second wave of the Colorado potato beetle. Had already grown bushes to handle another drug.
Insecticide Bankol - my experience of use
Against the Colorado potato beetle, she used the Bankol drug several years ago. Good drug. It was enough to spray one potato bushes. Adults and young individuals died almost immediately. Larvae that appeared after processing also died immediately, as soon as they began to feed on poisonous leaves. No reprocessing needed.
But then, left as seed potatoes, in the spring gave weak threadlike sprouts. I had to buy seed potatoes. I did not pay attention to this circumstance. The next summer, I again treated the potato field with this drug - again left without seed. Only then did I realize that Bancol inhibits the reproductive function of potatoes. I didn’t use it anymore, but it’s a pity ... - such an effect, I mean its ability to crack down on a pest in one treatment, I have not yet met.
The creators of the drug claim that already a week after processing potato crops, “Bankol” decomposes into components that are finally neutralized by soil bacteria. So, if you do not leave seed potatoes - it is difficult to find the best drug against the “colorador”.
I used the means Commander, Confidor, Tantrek. What can I say? ... Means are effective, but 3-4 treatments are required. And this is already laborious ...