Colorado Potato Beetle

This insect is native to North America. The beetles' discovery of our cultivated potatoes caused their population to explode dramatically beyond their native range in the Southwest.

They historically ate the Buffalo Bur (Solanum rostratum) which also is native to the states and is also a part of the same family of plants as the potatoes. The Buffalo Bur is not desirable to many as it has thorns and is poisonous to grazing animals. Attempts at eradication have removed a food source for the Potato Beetle.

The Colorado Potato Beetle seems to easily become resistant to the pesticides that we throw at it. This amazes me as so many things cannot adapt so well to our "stewardship". Because we rotate potatoes yearly, we have not yet seen a problem with this in... read moresect. Outside the areas where bare feet travel, we leave the Buffalo Bur alone as a food for this beetle, and for its beautiful flowers.

First year I've seen these guys. Hand picked them off my tomatoes, and squashed or scraped off all the eggs I could find. Apparently I missed a few clutches since last night I discovered a couple dozen larvae happily munching away. Hand picked them (yik!). I then sprayed w/ insecticidal soap. Don't know if that will help or not, hopefully I got them all anyway. Very destructive but if caught early enough plants seem to recover fine.

I see this subject hasn't had any comments for some time but thought I would add my words anyway. We have an infestation of these things in central KY this year & they are bad. They have pretty much destroyed our potato vines & now have moved on to the tomato plants & tomatoes themselves. Yesterday I found them on some of the pepper plants. Rotenone & Seven won't touch them. I'm going to try the amonia that was suggested in the last post.