I was up at my community garden plot a couple of days ago to mow the grass around the plot and to check on the potato plants there. I can assure you that you don't want to find these on your potato plants.
And you really don't want to find this on your potato plants!
Because if you find that, then you're going to find these.
This is the Colorado Potato Beetle, the worst pest on potato plants. The larvae of the potato beetle can strip a potato plant of it's leaves in a matter of a few days if there's a lot of them.
Here's a good article on the potato beetle that I found on the internet.
http://www.potatobeetle.org/overview.html
I went through the plants and picked off the beetles that I found, and that one batch of eggs and squashed them.
Today I went back up to the garden plot to check it again. I found a few small larvae which I squashed between leaves. I really doubt that I got them all, so I just have to keep looking for them every time I go up there.
I saw several daddy long legs spiders on the plants today, which is a good thing because, according to the linked article, they will feed on small potato beetle larvae and the eggs.
As long as the beetles don't eat too much of the leaves, it won't affect the yield of the plants. I'll just have to stay on top of it.
Thanks for stopping by to read my post, eh!
As always, feel free to leave a comment or question if you'd like to.
And remember, keep on steeming on!
