Potato Beetle - Handled it!

Out in the garden today I found i had a few potato beetles. I had a last minute addition of potatos into my sfg box, and also had a few leftovers that poked through from last year so I let them grow. They were way longer than they needed to be, high out of the box, I just hadnt gotten around to doing anything about it. Well... after seeing these beetles , hitting the net for some reasearch, I knew they needed to handled immediately.

So searching how to control these suckers of course I found tons of academic sites, extensions, etc, which had lots of crazy ways to deal with this. I found the perfect solution on this blog.

http://heirloomgardener.blogspot.com/2008/06/organic-pest-control-threelined-potato.html

Worked like a charm. I only had 4 beetles, but found some eggs. I chopped the leaves down (they can't grow potatoes in the air anyway), and burned the leaves just to be safe.

Just thought I would share the blog - soapy water... I can see how this might be difficult on commercial scales but worked like a charm in the home sq ft garden.

I found a couple of potato beetles on my russet potatoes and after panicking, read that you're supposed to pick them off and drop them in soapy water. My reflexes in the morning are not always quick enough to grab the darn things. The posted blog article was very helpful for me - I will try doing as they suggest and holding the water underneath the bug and just covering with my hand to see if they will drop down.



I don't have a lot of leaf damage yet, thankfully, and I haven't found any eggs. But I have a patch of potatoes that is 4 squares right in the center of one of my beds. Right now, the squares are only half-filled with dirt as I was planning on filling in and letting another layer grow. I'm sort of panicking - should I pull the plants and destroy, just to be sure they don't spread to any of the other plants? Would it be possible to transplant them to a different area. I'm thinking maybe making an enclosure with chicken wire lined with landscape fabric like Jimmy did (I think it was Jimmy Cee who made some towers that way?). Or just cut down all the legginess, dispose of the trimmings, and fill the square as originally planned?

Advice, suggestions please?

BlackjackWidow wrote:- should I pull the plants and destroy, just to be sure they don't spread to any of the other plants? Would it be possible to transplant them to a different area. I'm thinking maybe making an enclosure with chicken wire lined with landscape fabric like Jimmy did (I think it was Jimmy Cee who made some towers that way?). Or just cut down all the legginess, dispose of the trimmings, and fill the square as originally planned?

Advice, suggestions please?

I sometimes see a few of these on my ground cherry plants. No, pulling the plants is unnecessary and won't stop the beetles from appearing on other plants -- the original adults flew in from somewhere other than your garden, so pulling the plants won't stop the problem at its source, and transplanting won't stop the beetles from finding the plants.

I would go ahead as planned, but keep checking the plants to remove any adults you find into the soapy water*, and remove any eggs or larvae. The larvae of this pest tend to stay in groups which makes control easier:
https://extension.unh.edu/resources/files/Resource001192_Rep1517.pdf
I love bugs, and I like beetles, but I have to say this beetle's kids are ...well... ugly!
*The soap is required, I've had beetles survive in plain water.

Burning the leaves is unnecessary - just dispose of any leaves with eggs/larvae several yards away from anything in the potato family (tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, tomatillos, ground cherries, nightshade weeds.) Once detached the leaves will dry out and no longer be a food source, and unlike adult beetles the larvae can't travel far without food. They are helpless, squishy babies and they can't fly, without food they starve and die.

Growing the potatoes under cover (such as bridal tulle) in future years is a great idea to keep the beetles off/out. And you will want to grow your potatoes in a different location next year, just in case you miss a few larvae and those manage to pupate -- the beetles overwinter as pupae in the soil/MM.

Thank you so much for the reply, Beetles. Gives me hope - I will proceed as planned rather than move them. I ordered some fabric bags, which I will use for my sweet potato slips. Might be easier to contain/control the darn things. It will be another good experiment for me.

This is what the potato area looked like last week:


I found eggs on one leaf (right-hand side of pic)


I removed the tops of all the foliage, and sealed them in plastic garbage bags and threw them away to be safe. After reading your answer, I guess I could have just let them sit in the sun or garage and added them to the compost later, but I didn't want to chance it. The squares are still only half full of soil, but I will add more now. (I cut off the yellowed leaves you see in this pic, too, but didn't take another pic)


Still sort of panicking, I finally decided to dig up one of the plants, just to see if there were any evidence of larval damage and if I were getting any potatoes growing at all. I had tiny little potatoes that have no evidence of infestation. Yay!


Now armed with new information, I will fill the squares to the top with new MM, and try to remain diligent about checking every day. I have an empty coffee can with soapy water in it next to the bed, collecting the darn things. 

Thanks for the note about needing soapy water - I have been using it, but didn't know that plain water wouldn't work.