A real disaster for the garden: how to get rid of the Colorado potato beetle without chemicals

The Colorado potato beetle is the most famous garden pest that threatens all solanaceous crops. It can eat not only potato crops, but also tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers. It also likes petunias.

This pest is characterized by unprecedented vitality. Without food, the Colorado potato beetle goes into long-term hibernation, which can last up to three years. Females of these pests lay eggs in early spring. There can be up to 80 of them in one clutch. And during the season, one female beetle can lay up to a thousand eggs.

The viability and widespread distribution of these beetles are also due to the fact that larvae and adults scare birds away with their bright color. They also have an unpleasant odor and taste, so birds will not help save your crops.

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Since 20 beetles can completely destroy a potato bush in a few days, the fight against the Colorado potato beetle should begin in the spring, not when the potatoes have already reached flowering.

Some gardeners go out every day to check their crops and collect beetles and their larvae from the leaves. However, this laborious method is not worth your time.

Some people use infusions of citrus peels, poplar leaves, ash, bitter pepper, and vinegar to repel the Colorado potato beetle. Near the garden and between the rows, you can plant "enemies of the Colorado potato beetle" - marigolds, tansy, elecampane.

How to effectively fight the Colorado potato beetle without chemicals?

Sprinkle plants with ash (preferably birch). Pollinate the plants with it and sprinkle the ash on the ground between the bushes. Wormwood - it is mixed with birch ash (300 grams each), poured with boiling water (500 ml), and insisted for 2 days. Then you need to strain it, dilute it with water (to make up to ten liters), and spray the plants.

Corn flour - sprinkle wet leaves with it. When the beetles and their larvae eat the leaves with flour, they will die.

Fresh sawdust (pine or birch) - sprinkle it between the rows. Beetles are frightened by the smell of wood. Tinctures of various herbs - wormwood, and elecampane root are the most effective. Brew 100 grams of wormwood or elecampane root with a liter of boiling water, dilute it by 10 liters and periodically water the garden with this solution.

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It is also considered useful to spray potato beds with a decoction of dandelion and horsetail or wormwood (boil 200 grams of fresh herbs for 15 minutes in a bucket of water, cool, and dilute half a liter of broth in 10 liters of water).

Birch tar - two teaspoons of tar are poured into an empty plastic one-and-a-half liter bottle, diluted with warm water, and shaken. Make small holes in the lid and spray the potato bushes.

Experienced gardeners also recommend planting dill, calendula, nasturtium, peas, beans, and legumes between the beds of potatoes. These plants are believed to repel Colorado potato beetles.

We also offer to learn about effective slug baits.

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