Colorada Beetles

All this talk of Foot and Mouth brings to mind another threat to UK food supplies ;- the Colorado Beetle. This is taken so seriously in the UK that if any are found they have to be reported to the police. I notice via a Google search that this pest is found in quite a few parts of the USA.How do farmers and gardeners cope with them and is it considered a serious threat or do people just treat them as yet another problem insect pest?.

Sorry about the misspelling of Colorado in the title.

I get the Colorado bean beetle on my bush beans all the time. Not sure if that’s the same bug. Kinda like ladybugs only yellow and black. This is in Atlanta.

Very easy to control with the relative safe rotenone.

Are you talking about the Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata? See more about them including a photograph and methods of control, see: http://www.uwrf.edu/~cg04/333/colopotatobeetle/CPB.htm

They are a major pest to the potato crop here in Maine (and just about everywhere else potatoes are grown), but they are relatively easy to control with pesticides. They can also attack other crops, but they prefer potatoes.

Okay, the link says they are difficult to control, but I’ve never had too much of a problem with them. Probably a farmer couldn’t afford to check every part of his field twice a week, which is how often I check my garden for the little devils.

It was the potato Colorado beetle I was referring to.As I said before it is taken very seriously in the UK. All imported poatoes have to be certified and inspected. A lot of police stations have a poster on their notice boards showing a picture of the beetle to enable identification. I suppose once you have the pest in your country the only way to control it is with pesticides.

I read somewhere in a gardening book that they also pay a bounty in the UK if you bring in a Colorado potato beetle to the Ag Office. True or false?

The paying of a bounty used to happen, I don’t know if it still the case.