June 30, 2008

Colorado Potato Beetle - an unusual remedy: vacuuming

The potato plants at GardenSnob were covered with Colorado potato beetles. potato bug.jpg Some plants were completely defoliated. These potatoes had survived the whole winter in the basement and we were determined not to lose this crop. The Colorado potato beetle can be devastating to potato plants, tomatoes, peppers and eggplants and potato bug larvae.jpg is always slimy, bumpy and disgusting looking in the larvae stage. We were grossed out with the thought of picking them all off by hand and squishing them and yet didn't want to resort to chemicals. Why not vacuum them off? We used an outside extension cord and plugged in the backpack vacuum. Sure enough, we were gathering the little bastards into the vacuum bag in no time. Now you see them . . . Now you don't! Let the entire leaf go up the wand - potato plants are tough and they won't be damaged. The flowers don't fare as well so it's best to vacuum before the plants have started flowering. GardenSnob staff recommends that you vacuum the plants, go off and enjoy a beverage or two, then hit the vacuuming again as some of the beetles that flew away will have returned. You can even get them in mid-flight with some practice. We know there might be a carbon footprint sniffer reading this so we have made up for this flagrant misuse of limited resources by banning the vacuuming of the house for three weeks. Now that makes us wish we could grow potatoes year round. :)