Most gardeners face plant-munching pests in their vegetable garden from time to time, and the little buggers cause more than mere aesthetic damage. The Colorado potato beetles are one of them!
The Colorado potato beetle is also known as the Colorado beetle, or the potato bug is a major pest of potato crops. It is around ½ inch long, with a bright yellow/orange body and five bold brown stripes along the length of each of its elytra.
Native to America, it spread rapidly in potato crops across America and then Europe from 1859 onwards. The beetles possess potential to spread to temperate areas of East Asia, India, South America, Africa, New Zealand, and Australia.
Colorado potato beetle females are very prolific and are capable of laying over 500 eggs in a four to five week period. The larvae are the most damaging form but adults also feed on the foliage. Due to feeding, leaflets have holes of varying sizes usually starting around the margins. The leaf blades are eaten often leaving a skeleton of veins and petioles behind. This results in defoliation. Defoliation intensity levels are reported as 25% before tuber bulking, 10% during the first half of bulking, four to six weeks and 25% after bulking. Vine damage results in yield loss due to loss of foliage to support tuber growth and misshaping of tubers is also possible. Severe damage may result in plant stunting as well.
They are today considered to be the most important insect defoliator of potatoes. They may also cause considerable damage to tomato and eggplant crops with both adults and larvae feeding on the plant’s foliage. It may feed and survive on a number of other plants like pepper, tobacco, ground cherry and other plants in the nightshade family (Solanaceae). Larvae may defoliate potato plants resulting in 100% yield losses if the damage occurs prior to tuber formation.
Let us have a look at some recent news articles pertaining to the Colorado potato beetle menace.
Potato beetle resistance brewing
Potato producers are getting ready for their yearly fight with Colorado potato beetle, but in some places, the products don’t work the way they used to
By Alexis Stockford │May 1, 2018
The battle against Colorado potato beetle is becoming more difficult every season.
It’s not a new problem. As early as 2014, producer groups were already warning that Colorado potato beetles were becoming increasingly resistant to neonicotinoids.
Four years later, the problem has not gone away and, in some patches of the province, has arguably got worse.
High beetle populations made their way into last year’s provincial insect summary, with Manitoba Agriculture noting possible resistance in Titan- and Admire-treated fields.
Colorado potato beetle genome gives insight into major agricultural pest
By Eric Hamilton │January 31, 2018
The Colorado potato beetle is notorious for its role in starting the pesticide industry — and for its ability to resist the insecticides developed to stop it.
Managing the beetle costs tens of millions of dollars every year, but this is a welcome alternative to the billions of dollars in damage it could cause if left unchecked.
But it’s the beetle’s ability to rapidly develop resistance to insecticides and to spread to climates previously thought inhospitable that have fascinated and frustrated entomologists for decades.
The trench method is widely used to control the Colorado potato beetle where a trench is plowed between overwintering sites where the emerging beetles are trapped in the trench but the adults may fly over the trench thus proving to be ineffective.
The beetle’s ability to rapidly develop insecticide resistance is a major reason for insecticide failures against them. The pest became resistant to DDT in 1952 and dieldrin in 1958, most widely used insecticides across the globe! Flamethrowers are used to kill the beetles when they are visible at the top of the plant’s foliage but it has adverse effects on human health due to the fuel used in it.
When have all of these methods failed to get rid of these beetles why rely on them?
C Tech Corporation has come up with an eco- friendly and easy to use solution.
The unique product Combirepel™ manufactured by C Tech Corporation is an anti-insect aversive which repels insects.
Combirepel™ works on the mechanism of repellency. It temporarily inhibits the mating cycle of the insects. The product impairs the ability of the insects to reproduce, that is the insects will not lay eggs or the laid eggs will be infertile. The product causes feeding disruption in an insect by triggering an unpleasant reaction within the insect which might try to feed on the application. The product temporarily blocks the reproduction system of the insects by hindering the release of the vital hormones for growth.
Combirepel™ is an extremely low concern, low toxic, nonhazardous, non-carcinogenic and non-mutagenic insect aversive. It does not kill or cause harm to insects as well as to the environment which indirectly helps to maintain the ecological balance.
Combirepel™ is available in the form of the masterbatch, which can be incorporated into the polymeric applications like pipes, agriculture mulch films, floating row covers, greenhouse films etc. used for crop cultivation purpose. etc.
The product available in the form of liquid concentrate can be mixed in paints in a predetermined ratio and be applied on the fences in the garden and farms to keep the Colorado potato beetle away from these places.
Our product in the lacquer form can be applied topically to the applications. The lacquer is compatible with most of the surfaces like wood, concrete, metal, polymer, ceramic, etc. The lacquer can be applied to the already installed pipes in the fields or garden, fences around farms and garden, walls of the warehouses where the potatoes are stored, thus protecting it from damage.
The product is also effective against other pests thus protecting the plants from other pest attacks.
Combirepel™ is thermally stable and does not degrade on exposure to heat and sunlight. It does not kill or harm the insect but repels them. It does not volatilize and does not degrade the soil. It is RoHS, RoHS2, ISO, REACH, APVMA, NEA compliant and FIFRA exempted.
Contact us at technical.marketing@ctechcorporation.com to keep the pests away.
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