How to Stop Potato Beetles

Video Transcript

Hi! I'm Doug Smiddy with Smiddy's Gardening Services on behalf of expertvillage.com. Today we are going to talk about how to plant, grow and harvest potatoes. In my hand, I have the enemy of a potato plant called the Colorado Potato Beetle. These if left unchecked will destroy all your potatoes. It is amazing how much these little guys can eat. So you want to go out to your garden not too long after your plants come up and you really want to scout for them. Look on the side of the leaves where they are going to lay these orange egg masses. It is a bright orange. You can't miss them. If you come across those, cut those branches off, get rid of them, throw them in your garden. When those eggs hatch, they are going to turn in to a larvae which is about third of the size and they are going to be that color of their head. You can see kind of orangey, reddish kind of color. Those are the ones that are going to do a lot of damage and the adults what they primarily do in addition to eating the leaves, are going to lay eggs, million of them. So go out to your garden scout them early and take care of them. Two or three times a week always worked for me and when you do find them, there are two products you can use to take care of them besides some hand picking. One is going to have a product BT which is bacillus trangitis naturally occurring. That would be the active ingredient. I think it is sold under the trade name of potato beeter and the other one is going to be spinosad which is a naturally occurring bacteria and it is really affecting them with that disease and doesn't make them sick. It is not a nasty chemical. What we are going to do is just spray them with that stuff and in time it is going to stop them right in their tracks and again no harsh chemicals. I don't believe using chemical on any food products and I have been using this stuff for years. I've researched it. BT and spinosad is safe and it will take care of these little guys.

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