Folk methods of dealing with the Colorado potato beetle

Folk methods give worries, but they do not harm either economic crops or a person.

Every year, gardeners have to solve the eternal question of how to remove the well-known pest – the beetle from Colorado. There are two options: use folk remedies for the Colorado potato beetle or chemical. With chemistry, everything is clear: the drugs are strong, sometimes effective, however, they are poisonous. Folk methods give worries, but they do no harm to cultures or people. What did the people come up with against the pest?

Folk remedies against the Colorado potato beetle

Physical methods of exposure

On the one hand, the method is not the most pleasant, you have to run around the beds with a basin or a shovel. But on the other hand, in order to catch all the larvae and the first adult Colorado potato beetle, you need to work only 1.5-2 weeks.

Ways to deal with the Colorado potato beetle

The first way is with earth traps. If we are talking about potatoes, then about a week before planting the tubers, holes are dug in the garden, about 10 cm deep and in diameter. The walls and around the holes are pollinated with ash, but not wood, but coal, it is slippery. Pieces of potatoes are placed on the bottom. The gathered beetles are collected and new groundbait is laid.

The second method is bank traps. The principle of fishing is the same, but you will need jars or other containers for 400-500 ml. You should not take glass, while any other material will do. The containers are buried in the ground along the neck, cut tubers are applied – the trap is ready.

The third method is the manual collection. Not everyone likes it, but the efficiency is one hundred percent. Kerosene or diesel fuel is poured into a flat jar, at a level of about 0.5 cm. As soon as the first larvae appear, they are manually collected in jars. If you take a wide container, you can shake the larvae from the bush. Then, in the same kerosene, everything collected is burned.

Use of decoctions and tinctures

The method is no worse than the first since everything in order to make folk remedies for the fight against the Colorado potato beetle is already in the house or is growing on the site. In terms of physical labor, these are also gentle methods, but they take time – as long as there is a beetle until then planting has to be processed.

Ash

The product of «waste-free» production, after firing the stove or after kebabs, there is always ash. Ideally, birch ash is needed, the Colorado potato beetle does not like it very much. Bushes and the ground are pollinated by hand at intervals of 2 times a month until the first color appears, and then once a month.

Cement or gypsum

It is difficult to say how effective these materials are – you need to check them yourself, but some gardeners claim that it even helps a lot. Everyone does it as in the case of ash. Why gypsum or cement? A cemented stomach is unlikely to allow the beetle to live.

Mustard solution

This means of fighting the Colorado potato beetle can be called the simplest and cheapest. Powdered mustard is taken in a proportion of 3 tbsp. l. with a slide, water – about a liter. After a day, the concentrate is diluted in a bucket of water, and plants with beetles are immediately treated. Whoever is comfortable, you can take a bucket of water right away, then you don’t have to splash.

Sagebrush

You can always make an infusion of wormwood because the herb grows everywhere, everyone knows it. Wormwood with a volume of about a liter is poured into a bucket of hot water, but not boiling water. In this case, it is better to use crushed wormwood. Leave for about 2 hours. Then ash is poured (1 glass), insisted for another 1 hour. That’s it – the solution is ready.

Yeast

Yeast plus soda is a two-in-one solution. In yeast (300 g), better liquid, dissolve in water, add soda (300 g), shake well. The bushes are sprayed 1-2 times a week as needed. Why two in one? Because yeast is also a top dressing.

Urea

Urea is a fertilizer. Nevertheless, no one said that folk remedies for the Colorado potato beetle cannot be chemical. The solution is prepared from 10 liters of water and 100 g of urea (urea).

Sunflower oil

Sunflower oil – those who have not tried it will not understand. It’s simple. 1 glass of vegetable oil is diluted in a bucket of water, plantings are treated with a suspension. Recipe as a bonus to other recipes, since it is not known how to mix oil with water, and how such a solution acts on larvae or beetles. Alternatively, the Colorado potato beetle slips and falls over the leaf.

No matter how much we list all the folk remedies, it will not work to apply them in one garden. The simplest means are considered. There will be an opportunity to try what is better and what is worse.

Biological product Kaputt

If all of the above methods do not allow you to get rid of the Colorado potato beetle, and you don’t want to use chemistry, the biological preparation Insectoacarcid Kaputt will come to the rescue, which is absolutely safe for humans and pets.

The action of the biological product is based on the fact that microorganisms inhibit the digestive processes of pests. In other words, after eating the treated leaves, the beetles lose their appetite and die from lack of nutrition (hunger).

You can also read about the fight against the Colorado potato beetle