Oooh No!! Colorado Potato Beetles!

10th of May - Last week, Juliane saw them walking through the young potato plants: Colorado Potato Beetles. They look very beautiful and harmless but they are one of the worst possible enemies of the potato plant. The beetles survive in the soil during winter and get out in spring to eat and lay eggs. A female beetle can lay up to 800 eggs. They can have up to 3 cycles in a year…… you can do the math!

We cannot allow our potatoes to be eaten already by beetles! Yesterday, I have been going through the rows and pick the beetles by hand. I collected about 100 beetles. Not much but if they all were to lay eggs it would be very crowded in a few weeks!