Seeing these bugs on my potato plants sends me into a frenzy of destruction. I gleefully squish all the ones I can get my hands on and start thinking about nuking my potato field. Jerremie, on the other hand, is more level headed, and heads to his non-chemical arsenal to deal with them.
Fire, it turns out, is not a potato bug's friend. Jerremie used his Tiger Torch to flame all the infested potato plants. Potato plants can take a surprising amount of abuse, and didn't seem to mind the heat. The bugs popped like Jiffy-pop popcorn (yay!)
We also have beneficial insect allies. Ladybugs, Daddy-Long Legs, Spiny Soldier Beetles and two types of parasite flies love to feed on the squishy pink larvae. When Jerremie was flaming the potato plants, he said that the beneficial insect allies were scurrying away to safety. Potato beetles are incredibly slow and clumsy, so they got fried. (Did you know that potato beetles are so lazy and clumsy, that if you knock them off the potato plant three times in a row, they will be too tired to climb back up on to the plant and will die of starvation? It's a wonder that they are such a menace...)
We're also shipping in some nematodes to add to our soil. They will attack the potato bugs when they drop off the plants to molt and grow a new shell.
Between flaming the plants, using beneficial insect allies and mulching we hope to slow the beetles down as much as possible.
It's reflex to jump to chemical solutions when these things happen. Let's face it, chemicals seem easier and more thorough. But the reality is, in this case, it's the non-chemical alternatives that I think will win the day for us.
Besides, potato beetles will never be immune to squishing. :)
p.s. Here's a pic of our potato packaging. It's all 100% recyclable paper products :)
