Never mind the bees, what's happened to the Colorado beetle?

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Every day I conduct a patrol over my potato patch looking for the little blighters and so far have only had the pleasure of crushing four. My potato plants are three feet high and look very tasty, so where are the stripy bastards? Have they decided to take a leaf out of the locust's book and swarm in all in one go? I am suspicious.

[theabsinthefairy]

I am keeping my fingers crossed as we have had none of the little b*****s sighted yet - although this has not stopped all my neighbours dousing their plants in every available chemical known to man - which helped not a jot last year!!

Anyway - last year we fed them to our guinea fowl who love them - but no guinea fowl this year so hoping no bugs too!

[ina]

Some years are worse for them than others - so you may just be lucky and have "low Colorado beetle density" year! We seem to have very few moths and Daddy long legs here this year - OK, that's a different thing altogether, but it just shows that insects aren't around in the same kind of numbers every year.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

I am keeping my fingers crossed as we have had none of the little b*****s sighted yet - although this has not stopped all my neighbours dousing their plants in every available chemical known to man - which helped not a jot last year!!

Anyway - last year we fed them to our guinea fowl who love them - but no guinea fowl this year so hoping no bugs too!

Guinea fowl are prepared to eat them? That is useful to know. The chickens won't touch the them.

Chemical control is very difficult (not that I would anyway) and is life-cycle dependent. Not that stops my neighbours dousing everything in sight with organophosphates and suchlike.

[theabsinthefairy]

spotted the first one today

[John Headstrong]

I remember hearing of them years back, I had to googlepedia for "Colorado beetle"and found this

In the United Kingdom, where the Colorado beetle is a rare visitor on imported farm produce, it is a notifiable pest: any found must be reported to DEFRA.

learn something new everyday at Ish

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_p ... _crop_pest

[ina]

The chickens won't touch the them.

Is it just the beetles, or the grubs as well that they won't touch?

[The Riff-Raff Element]

The chickens won't touch the them.

Is it just the beetles, or the grubs as well that they won't touch?

Both really. I rather assumed that the lurid colouring was a sign to the world at large saying "I am not edible."

But the grubs go squish and the adults go crunch easy enough He He He!

[ina]

But the grubs go squish and the adults go crunch easy enough He He He!

You sounds as if you enjoy that!


I like the way organic farms deal with them in potatoes - they get shaken off, collected, and then, I suppose, destroyed somehow...

[Millymollymandy]

No beetles and no blight either! But then the first year I grew spuds I had neither - twas only the year I got the beetles that I got the blight...