Colorado Potato Beetle

Colorado Potato Beetle

If you are growing potatoes this season, you will most definitely see this beetle. They average about 1/3" long and are a yellowish color with black stripes.

The adults (beetles) and larvae (photo below) eat the leaves of potato plants as well as tomatoes, eggplants and other related plants, including petunias.

Their voracious feeding can kill small plants and will reduce the yield of mature plants.

Colorado Potato Beetle larvae

Over several months time a female can lay 1,000 eggs, which hatch in 4-9 days.  For 2-3 weeks the larvae will feed and then drop to the ground where they will pupate in the soil, where it emerges as an adult beetle in about 5-10 days.

On a tour of the gardens last week, the Community Gardens Committee, found the larvae in many gardens.

If you have seen these on your plants your best line of defense for your garden as well as the rest of the community is to smash them.

Inspect the undersides of your leaves for the eggs and smash them as well, they look like this:

Colorado Potato Beetle Eggs

If you get a bit squeamish squashing them, lay a dropcloth beneath your plants and shake or knock the larvae or beetles onto it, then you can dump them into some soapy water.

With about 10 minutes of attention, these beetles can easily be managed without the use of chemicals, which will only push them over to another garden.

Since these beetles overwinter, our best line of defense as a community garden is to reduce their numbers by destroying them in their early stages as eggs and larvae and also destroying any adult beetles as they come along.