Colorado beetle: larvae. Fighting Colorado Beetles

The homeland of this bored beetle is one of the Mexican provinces. After he destroyed the potato fields of Colorado, began to be called this way: the Colorado beetle. His larvae eagerly feed on other Solanaceae, including tomatoes, aubergines, and peppers.

A little about the pest

Previously, the care of the plot with planted potatoes was the timely loosening and removal of weeds. Now the main struggle for the harvest is the destruction of an uninvited guest. In spring, as soon as the temperature of the soil reaches 12-15 degrees, the beetles are selected to the surface from a depth of 20-30 cm. Throughout the summer, eggs appear on the underside of the leaves of the potato. After a week they turn into larvae. The larva of the Colorado beetle (photo below) is a more malicious and voracious pest.

In a short time the potato field can turn into lonely standing bare stems. A month later the larva turns into an adult insect. If the summer turned out to be hot, several generations of pests have time to grow.

Methods of struggle

For many years hordes of pests have attacked the fragile seedlings of tomatoes, potato plantations, as well as peppers and eggplants. Mankind has invented many ways to deal with an intrusive neighbor. The Colorado beetle is very dangerous : the larvae often completely destroy the planting of truck farmers. Therefore, it is important to remove pests from the site. There are four basic methods of how to destroy the Colorado beetle and larva. The most laborious method is mechanical. It consists in the periodic collection and destruction of beetles, their eggs and larvae. This way you can clean only a small potato planting. A field of several hectares can not be physically processed.

The next method - biological - involves the use of insects, birds and microorganisms. Absolutely harmless and promising. The agrotechnical method is a crop rotation, the selection of quality varieties, the beetle of "not loved", measures for the improvement and development of plants. Still there is a chemical method of influence on a pest.

Using mechanical techniques

In the garden section, small beds with potatoes are regularly inspected, collecting pests that appeared after winter. You can arrange a kind of bait. In spring, as well as after harvesting, tin cans are placed at the same level with the ground. In them, lay out pieces of potatoes, processed with chlorophos. Beetles crawl inside the cans and die. If you decompose the piles of cleaning in different parts of the garden, a large number of insects gather on them. It remains to pour a flammable solution and burn them.

After the appearance of potato sprouts, pests are collected in a jar, for example with kerosene. Carefully inspect the bottom of the leaves. In time, the destroyed eggs are thousands of larvae. How to get rid of the larvae of the Colorado potato beetle? It is most convenient to shake them from a bush in a wide container with water, so that they do not dissolve.

Biological struggle

Biologically active agents are based on bacteria, which, after appropriate treatment, enter into adult insects and larvae. Reproducing intensively, they are destructive to the larvae of the Colorado potato beetle. Fighting them is spraying the drugs several times a season at intervals of a week. Biological solutions are not harmful to other living beings. They do not pollute the earth and air. The drawback of the method is that each newly appeared batch of larvae and beetles should be sprayed.

Assistants in the fight can become chickens of a certain breed, as well as guinea fowls. To the smell of potato leaves and pests, birds are accustomed gradually, mixing them into food. The grown hens and guinea fowl are let out on a potato field. Before that, birds are not fed. Potatoes can not be processed so that the chickens do not glue the affected larvae.

Agrotechnical methods

Although there are no absolutely resistant varieties of potato against the pest, some of its species are ignored. Therefore, one should not plant the same grade year after year. Varietal material should be updated. It is recommended to plant potatoes as early as possible and already with sprouts. Then, by the time the larvae leave, the potato tops will grow and grow stronger.

The question of how to deal with the larvae of the Colorado potato beetle has long worried agronomists. Effectively hilling only appeared potato sprouts. This method leads to a decrease in the number of oviposition by more than 50%. Loosening the soil between the rows will destroy a number of pupae that have gone to
The soil for the next stage of development. You can mow down and destroy the tops a week before harvest. Then the beetles lose their food in the important period of their preparation for wintering. Deep digging or plowing is carried out in late autumn. Then the individuals who have left for the wintering will be on the surface of the soil and die when frost comes. Thanks to such pest operations, next year will be much less.

Methods of exposure through chemicals

Many gardeners use chemical products. With each season, along with already familiar and proven means, there are new ones. Sometimes it is difficult to understand their abundance. Especially there is a desire to find the most effective means, and at the same time, safe. It is known how greedy the larva of the Colorado potato beetle is. The photos of the destroyed landings speak for themselves. The drugs are of contact and systemic action. It is better to choose a combination. Contact insecticides act on the pest. They are easily washed off, and after the rain, re-treatment is required. In places where the solution did not hit, the bugs continue to destroy the bush. The systemic preparations accumulate in the tops and remain there for a long time.

To ensure that beetles are not accustomed to poisons, treatment agents should be periodically changed.

Most used drugs

Using this or that pesticide, you need to follow the instructions clearly. You can not use overdue funds. The abstract should have data on the active substance of the pesticide. The composition of drugs different in name often includes the same active substance. The basis of such systemic drugs as "Prestige", "Confidor", "Zhukomor", "Ratibor", is imidacloprid. But thiamethoxam is the active ingredient of "Enghio", "Doctor", "Aktara".

Particularly in demand is the drug "Prestige". The tubers are treated before planting. The active substance rises on the emerging sprouts.

Young potatoes can be used after the specified period. It is not very convenient to handle tubers from all sides. But the crops do not require spraying from such a pest as the Colorado beetle. The larvae appear later, and they can no longer cause any appreciable damage, as the tubers formed.

Folk methods

Folk remedies from the larvae of the Colorado beetle are very diverse and almost always harmless. It is recommended to spray potato plantings with tar solution. In 10 liters of water, 100 g of birch tar is bred.

Soapy ash solution is widely used. The ash is boiled for 15 minutes. To 10 liters you need to add 50 g of soap. Leaves of plants can be sprinkled with dry ash, corn flour or cement dust. Flour or cement swells in the stomach of the pest, beetles perish, their number decreases.

Nicotine, contained in tobacco waste, is detrimental to beetles. Use a strained infusion + 40 grams of laundry soap. To do this, in 10 liters of cold water, 500 g of raw materials are insisted for two days.

Sprinkle the bushes with the following infusion: fresh leaves and 2 kg of green walnut fruit, 300 grams of shells are poured with a bucket of boiling water. The infusion is prepared from autumn and kept until the next season.

We use decoctions of herbs

Using decoctions and infusions of medicinal plants, one should observe what the Colorado beetle larva looks like immediately after treatment. This will help to properly assess their actions and determine the required amount of plant material.

The recipe is: 250 g of wormwood, a glass of ash and 10 liters of boiling water. Infuse for 3 hours, the infusion is ready for work.

Dandelion and horsetail take 250 grams, boil 15 minutes in 10 liters of water. The solution is filtered. The broth is concentrated. Therefore, every liter taken is bred with a bucket of water.

100 g of the root of elecampane is steamed with boiling water. After the mass is infused and cooled, sprinkle with the solution three times a month. You can also use celandine grass. The resulting solution is diluted from this calculation: a half-liter can of 10 liters of water.

In a bucket of water, insist 100 g of red hot pepper. Add two grated pieces of laundry soap. The infusion is ready for treatment.

The tomato tops are somewhat poisonous. Boil 4 kg of raw material in 10 liters for 40 minutes. The broth should be diluted with water in a proportion of 2:10. For better adhesion to the plant, add 50 grams of worn laundry soap.

Some interesting tricks

When the question arises of what to poison the larvae of the Colorado beetle, it is not superfluous to know that pests are sensitive to smells. Planted between rows or around the perimeter of the potato area of a plant with a strong odor can scare them away. 100% confidence in getting rid of uninvited guests is not, but you can try. Plant such flowers as marigolds, calendula, night violet, nasturtium. And also dill, garlic, cucumber grass, beans, beans.

For the same purpose, between the rows, decompose onion and its husk, pine and birch sawdust. Processing of urea crops gives a double benefit - it is pest control and fertilizing plants with nitrogen. After harvesting, one-time treatment of the field is carried out with a 4% solution of chicken manure.

There is an opinion that the beetle does not tolerate the smell of citrus. Dryed over the winter, the crust can be decomposed between potato bushes.

Safety regulations

There are many various means to protect plants against pests. They are sold both in special stores and in markets. Enterprising merchants sell their goods in electric trains, where there are many summer residents. Now the Colorado beetle (larvae, in particular) has become resistant to various pesticides. Acquire funds are only in specialized outlets. The goods must be certified, have detailed instructions for use, the original packaging and the corresponding inscriptions.

When working, you should observe personal safety measures, do not forget about rubber gloves, gauze bandage, glasses. For spraying, you need to use special tools. Dilute drugs with strict adherence to the instructions. Work should be done in the morning or in the evening, not in the heat and in the absence of wind.

In the fight against pests it is better to use biological methods, do not forget about your own health and safety. And let the good harvest bring you only joy!