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- Biological methods of getting rid of the Colorado potato beetle
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- Colorado potato beetle
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- Folk remedies for the Colorado potato beetle
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- Ways to deal with the Colorado potato beetle
The Colorado potato beetle does not belong to monsters that cannot be killed. It reacts to pesticides in the same way as any other garden pests. Its advantage is the ability to fly tens of kilometers in search of a convenient place for breeding. The only fertilized female American migrant left to winter in the garden will fully restore the population in the spring. The fight against the Colorado potato beetle by folk remedies is ineffective if the population is already entrenched. But these methods are good as preventative measures.
How to scare or kill a Colorado potato beetle
The pest eats not only potatoes, but also any other nightshade:
- Tomatoes
- eggplant;
- wild nightshade in a hopeless situation.
This circumstance will have to be taken into account when planting garden crops. It is not enough to process potatoes from the Colorado potato beetle, it is also necessary to make sure that it does not settle on other plants.
Of the popular methods of struggle at a time when the beetle has already multiplied and strengthened on potatoes, mechanical and "self-destruction" can be used. This means that the beetle will have to be assembled by hand. After collecting the beetles do not need to throw them away. The plants still have eggs and unnoticed insects and larvae. Here you can use the collected pests against their "free" counterparts:
- Collect a half-liter can of beetles and pour them into 10 liters of water. Close the container with a lid and let it stand until the Colorado potato beetles sink to the bottom. Dilute the infusion with another 20 liters of water and spray potatoes with this composition.
- Pour the collected beetles into a metal container and calcine on the coals until coal is formed. Grind the remains to a soot state, stir in 10 l of water and poison the beetles.
On a note!
According to gardeners' reviews, ordinary plastic bottles with live insects inside also help to remove the Colorado potato beetle from potatoes. For what reason this method scares off the Colorado potato beetle, gardeners have not figured it out yet. It can be sounds made by insects. The smell is unlikely to leak from a closed bottle. But the bugs are leaving.
There are biological methods of getting rid of an illegal migrant from America:
- Domestic bird;
- predatory insects;
- repelling plants.
The first option is ineffective, since for the destruction of the beetle by representatives of the pheasant family, birds must be trained eat this insect. A common myth that guinea fowls eat colorado is just a myth. Residents of the African continent do not seek to eat an emigrant from America. The compatriots of Colorado - turkeys, are also not enthusiastic about such a menu.
If guinea fowls and chickens get on the beds, they dig and destroy all the plants, and turkeys simply eat the whole green mass. The beetle will disappear. Why does he need bare earth? But there will be no harvest.
Some predatory European insects are not averse to bite and Colorado beetle. This pest is eaten:
- ground beetles;
- praying mantises;
- lacewings.
Interesting!
In the Krasnodar Territory, they tried to acclimatize the natural enemy of the Colorado pest - the predatory bug of Perillus. But the bug did not take root. Either he himself died out, or frightened summer residents poisoned him when he saw this red-black insect on a potato and mistook it for another pest.
The use of predators against the beetle is tempting, but not feasible, since you will have to completely abandon pesticides. Insecticides do not care who to poison, and beneficial insects will not be able to destroy all pests. Planting herbs looks much more effective.
Grass repellents
One of the popular folk remedies for the Colorado potato beetle. This method of removing pests from potatoes is based on scare. The method is simple. Colorado beetle afraid or just don't like the aroma of some plants:
- calendula
- coriander;
- night violets;
- marigolds;
- nasturtiums;
- borago;
- Luke;
- horseradish;
- legumes;
- wormwood.
Some flowers are not only beautiful, but can also provide the gardener with homemade spices or medicines. The dual benefits of legumes, horseradish or onions are obvious.
On a note!
Plants are planted between potato beds. It is necessary to predict the time of planting so that they have time to develop before the emergence of young potato sprouts.
Colorado prefer to eat young foliage, and another popular recipe from the Colorado potato beetle is based on this preference: when the planted potatoes rise and grow a little, old potatoes are buried between the beds. After the tubers in the aisle sprout, the colorado will move to young and tender shoots. Collecting a pest from several bushes is easier than from beds designed for harvesting.
You can use the bug’s habit of crawling on the smell of potatoes, preparing a trap for it from an ordinary can. The basic requirement for this popular means of struggle is sufficient depth. The jar is smeared around the edges with juice, and several pieces of potatoes are put on the bottom. Then they bury it so that the neck is flush with the ground. The pest cannot guess from the trap. Banks are changed every three days.
But all these options can be considered exotic. It is difficult to lure insects, plants do not want to bloom during the growth of potatoes, only a small part of the population falls into traps.
Home-made remedies for the Colorado potato beetle can both kill pests and scare them away. For their manufacture, the usual preparations are sufficient, which are found in every house of the gardener.
How to process potato bushes
There are many folk recipes than to poison the Colorado potato beetle. A significant part of these recipes is associated with herbal preparations. To get rid of the Colorado potato beetle folk remedies use:
- sagebrush;
- tobacco;
- garlic;
- hot pepper;
- tomato tops;
- elecampane;
- celandine;
- onion peel;
- poplar leaves;
- white acacia bark;
- Walnut;
- sunflower;
- tar.
From the beetle, almost the same plants are used that are used from other garden pests. At the same time, aphids and caterpillars can be destroyed with colorado.
On a note!
Tar is an extract from a birch bark.
The most common recipes for solutions from plant materials:
- Wormwood is used in a mixture with wood ash. A glass of ash is mixed with 300 g of dry bitter wormwood and pour boiling water. You need to insist 3 hours.
- 200 g of peeled garlic cloves are infused in 10 l of water for a day. Before sprinkling potatoes, add 40 g of laundry soap to keep the solution better on potato tops.
- There are two recipes for tomato tops. In the first kilogram of chopped tops, they insist in warm water. In the second 3 kg are boiled in 10 liters of water. Both types of the drug are diluted in a proportion of 1 liter of the composition to 5 liters of water. Before use, add laundry soap.
- Tobacco. 0.5 kg insist 2 days in 10 liters of water.Before spraying, add another 20 liters of water and add soap.
- Chop down fresh ripe celandine bushes and fill a bucket. Pour in water and boil for 15 minutes. Strain the resulting extract and dilute with water at the rate of 0.5 l of broth per 10 l of water.
- 300 g of onion husks are put under oppression and poured with hot water. Insist 24 hours.
- Dilute 100 g of birch tar with water. The solution is sprayed with potatoes 3 times a week.
There are many more tips on how to bring out the Colorado potato beetle, as each gardener tries to find a 100 percent pest.
On a note!
Processing potatoes with decoctions and infusions is carried out in the evening until evening dew falls. In rainy weather or through dew, potato bushes are not sprayed.
In addition to the listed funds, they are popular:
Feedback
I tried various herbal decoctions right up to hemp. It seemed that herbs were completely indifferent to this parasite from America. Chemicals and manual collection work. It is necessary to collect a couple of times a week, and not only larvae and adult Colorado, but also egg laying, if they are found.
Sergey, Nice
other methods
To destroy the Colorado potato beetle, nitrogen fertilizer is often used. When applying urea, it must be remembered that nitrogen causes the “fatliquoring” of plants, and spraying with a solution with a very high concentration of fertilizer can burn leaves. Urea from the Colorado potato beetle is bred in a 1: 1 ratio. if you need to spray the tops of the larvae. For adult pests, a bait is prepared: a glass of urea in 2 liters of water. A kilogram of potato is cut into pieces and soaked for 10-12 hours in solution. Then the pieces are laid out in rows.
Feedback
In my opinion, urea from the Colorado potato beetle is not very reliable. Too often, potatoes must be sprayed. But it is washed off by dew and rain, falls into the ground and bushes grow, instead of forming tubers. And if sprayed after flowering, the tubers accumulate nitrates.
Lyudmila, s. Donskoye
Mulching
Among folk methods, mulching with fresh sawdust is used. In this case, weeds do not grow on the potato beds, depriving the Colorado pest of protection from the gardener's eyes. The smell of fresh coniferous sawdust scares off not only Colorado, but also other pests.
Dry onion peel
Another way to prevent the Colorado population from getting divorced on potatoes: a handful of dry husk is poured into the dug hole and then the tuber is put. Some have no pests in the garden all summer; for others, this method does not work.
Dusting
Among folk methods there is dry dusting of potatoes over dew with sifted ash, cement or gypsum. In reviews of folk remedies of this type, birch ash is indicated as the most effective means. For dusting take 10 kg of ash per hundred plantings. Colorado and larvae die after 48 hours. But dusting with ash must be carried out twice a month before flowering. After flowering, the ratio is halved.
Powder dusting with cement or gypsum involves the death of pests as a result of blockage of the intestine by cemented particles.
Such a wide variety of tips on how to deal with the Colorado potato beetle by folk remedies suggests that it will be finally possible to defeat it only after the unification of the countries of Eurasia into one state and the simultaneous processing of all potato plantings.
