GA: Insect update

GA insect update notes:

Colorado potato beetles:  Finding larva in the potato patch that I covered late; removing by hand.  Haven't found any at all in the other potato patch that I covered from day one.  Haven't found any on tomatoes yet but neighbours have.

Cucumber beetles:  Most of my squash is still tulled, but for the untulled ones they are definitely there.  And one of the tulled ones wasn't secure and had a bunch.

Squash bugs:  Found a pair mating on the outside of tulle over a squash!  Other than than haven't seen any, nor eggs yet on the two uncovered.

Three-lined potato beetle:  Surprisingly I've found hardly any eggs on the ground cherries so far, so stopped looking and will instead just look for larvae.

I think that's it so far.  No sign of the japanese beetle yet, but I'm sure it won't be long now...

So, so far it's been very manageable, nothing scary yet.  The scary part will come when more/all of the squash is uncovered......

GA: OMG -- INSECTS ON DAY 1! Colorado Potato Beetle, and Three Lined Potato Beetle! Adults and eggs! On potatoes and ground cherries!

OMG!  Within like 30 minutes of transplanting the ground cherries, there were adults on them!  Some of them mating, no less!

AND -- fortunately I happened to notice bright orange eggs on one of the potato patches -- and saw several adult Colorado Potato Beetles.  Removed the eggs that I could find.

Here's a good page about CPBs, with suggestions for how to deal with them:  https://wholefedhomestead.com/organic-potato-bug-control-get-rid-of-potato-beetles-naturally/

And this article mentions some varieties that are resistant:  https://www.planetnatural.com/pest-problem-solver/garden-pests/colorado-potato-beetle-control/ -- "Yukon Gold, Russet Burbank, Caribe, and Norland, which are specifically designed to be less vulnerable to the beetle’s attacks"

I predict that a few months from now, I will look back and see that this was the day I realized that not drought, not weeds, not theft, not vandalism, not disease, but INSECTS will be far and away the biggest pressure at the allotment.

Three-lined potato beetle babies on potato plant leaves

Happened to notice these ones, and removed them, but not going to worry about it too much, no searching around. 

Maybe these are the babies of the adult I saw on the potatoes last week.

Three-lined potato beetle on main potato batch

Just one so far.  Removed.  Won't kaolin at this point bec sooooo many leaves.

Insects not causing issues, few in number

Seeing hardly any Japanese beetles or cucumber beetles.  The occasional one, but that's it.  Kind of nice.

Haven't noticed any three-lined potato beetle babies on the ground cherries, but I haven't been checking, and I did find several adults over the past weeks, so I'm sure the babies are there or will be soon, but I'm not too worried.

Cucumber beetles (on cukes mostly, s/t zukes) and three-lined potato beetles daily (on ground cherries)

Not an infestation yet, just a slow and steady incoming amount.

Three-lined potato beetle and eggs found on ground cherries

It's been a while, I wondered when they'd be back.  

No more three-lined potato beetles seen

Checked the ground cherries for eggs again today and didn't see any.  So, haven't seen any three-lined potato beetle signs since a few weeks ago when I saw an adult and removed eggs.

Three-lined potato adult beetle found on an unkaolined ground cherry, and some eggs

Relocated the bettle and removed the eggs.

Kaolin application #2 given on half ground cherries and tomatoes, 1 zucchini and 1 potato pot

Only the second application so far.  Re-applying because of presence of three lined potato beetle eggs on ground cherries, and starting to gradually see flea beetles so want to hold off a major flea beetle invasion before the plants are more mature.

Diluted it a bit more than the first application by adding more water to the bottle.

Applied it at 4pm (i.e. post-direct-sun) to 3 of the 7 ground cherries, 3 of the 6 tomatoes, 1 zucchini (the one in the back by the compost bin), and 1 of the pots of potatoes.

I'll wait a week or so to see how the sprayed ones do, before spraying the others.

Eggs of three lined potato beetle (FOY) found on ground cherry leaf undersides -- will re-apply kaolin

^^^

Explosion of three-lined potato beetle (x7 caught today)

Where did they come from all of a sudden?  On the central ground cherries.

(The ground cherries still look fine, I think they're healthy enough to tolerate some leaf-eating.)

A few more three-lined potato beetles and cucumber beetles found

Still just the occasional one though.

Haven't actually seen the potato beetles on the potatoes (they've been on the ground cherries).

The one recent cucumber beetle was in a squash flower.

Three lined potato beetle found (first in a while)

Found on the container ground cherry.

Checked all ground cherries for eggs, didn't see any.

Insect report: May 28th

I will use this as a running "tally" of the various insects I've seen in my garden, mostly ones who eat the plants but a few other interesting ones as well.  For future updates I'll copy this list and build on it.

The dates indicate the first day I saw them

Lupin aphids:  May 23rd (first time I've seen these in person)
Flea beetles:  May 24th (actually I think I saw them a few days prior)
Three lined potato beetles:  May 24th
Slugs:  May 26th
Yellow wooly bear moth:  May 26th (first time I've seen one of these in person)
Clavate tortoise beetle:  May 27th (first time I've seen one of these in person)

Three lined potato beetle has arrived

Found two today.  Removed.

Three-lined potato beetles have been breeding and laying more eggs (on ground cherry plants)

Starting about a week or two ago, I started seeing larger numbers of three-lined potato beetles again.  I didn't do anything about it, in the hopes that maybe their breeding season had ended a while ago.

But today I happened to see some babies feeding, and then found a ton of eggs on the undersides of the leaves.

More three-lined potato beetles (adults)

Have been seeing more three-lined potato beetle adults on the central patch ground cherries the past few days.  Have been relocating them. Haven't seen larvae from this round yet, though it's hard to see the whole plants because of all the squash leaves surrounding them.

Found three-lined potato beetle larvae eating ground cherry plants

Aha!  On June 10th I had found a three-lined potato beetle adult and some eggs on a nearby leaf. Today, I happened to notice some chewed leaves on a ground cherry plant, looked closer, and sure enough found several larvae eating leaves.  Found them on several of the plants, particularly the southern central one, and some on the north central one and the one by the compost.  Can't remember if I found any on the other two plants.

While looking for them, also found more eggs on the undersides of leaves.

Relocated all larvae/eggs found.

It's definitely this species, as they clearly were carrying their droppings on their back.  I don't think I've ever seen this type of insect before.

The plants look only minimally affected, should hopefully make a full recovery.

Insects -- and eggs -- found today:

Insects found in garden today:


three-lined potato beetle, Lema daturaphila -- found on ground cherry leaf (the potted one) -- and then found two or three "piles" of eggs!  two on the same cherry, one on another.

and

squash bug or stink bug (not sure which) -- can't remember where found