Sunday, June 2, 2024

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.

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