The Colorado potato beetle beetle has replaced numerous biological and chemical means that have been created for decades to get rid of insects that have taken a liking to nightshade plants. The list of drugs for the pest, which destroys entire potato fields in a short time, is constantly updated with new compounds, but the Colorado potato beetle quickly adapts to them.
With the advent of warmth, the female insect finds the first shoots on which she lays hundreds of eggs. In less than a month, the larvae hatch, which greedily attack the leaves and stems of the plant, causing enormous damage to the crop.
Composition of the drug
Any remedy for the Colorado potato beetle, which was produced by different manufacturers, initially effectively combated the voracious pest, but after a while the striped insect appeared on potato leaves, since it has amazing adaptability.
Some companies continue to release new pest control products. A company called August took a different path. Before creating a drug for the Colorado potato beetle, specialists studied:
- insect behavior;
- possibilities for adaptation,
- features of life;
- composition of other poisons used.
The product, which is only slightly dangerous to humans, but kills both adults and larvae, destroys egg laying, contains three active components that ensure its effectiveness. This poison against the Colorado potato beetle is suitable for use in small summer cottages and farm fields.
The effectiveness of the product is ensured by the presence in it of:
- alpha-cypermethrin;
- imidacloprid;
- clothianidin.
The first of the substances causes paralysis of the insect, negatively affecting its nervous system. If this component enters the body, adult individuals die within an hour and fall to the ground under a bush.
After spraying, imidaclopromide penetrates all the leaves and stems of the plant that the pest eats. In addition, this component helps to increase productivity, as it enhances the resistance of tubers to disease.
Clothianidin destroys insects, strengthens the bush, revives the structure of crop tissues, and restores leaves.
The poison from the Colorado potato beetle is used once a season, but this does not prevent you from getting rid of all the offspring. It will no longer be able to harm the plant.
How to use the product?
The beetle eater should not be bought at the market, where they often sell fakes that have absolutely no effect on insects. When purchasing an insecticide, which is best purchased in a specialized store or on the website of the company that produces it, you need to pay attention to the original packaging of the Zhukoed drug. Instructions for use from the Colorado potato beetle help you understand how to dilute the composition so that insects no longer cause harm to plants.
For a plot of potatoes the size of one hundred square meters, you do not need to use the entire preparation, since there are 9 ml of it in the package, and 1.5 is enough. To prepare the poison:
- Use a syringe to draw up the calculated amount of product.
- The poison must be poured into the prepared container.
- First you need to dilute it in a liter of water, then add two more.
- The solution will have to be mixed thoroughly and sent to the sprayer container.
Each potato bush is treated with the beetle beetle. Even if the drug does not get on the insect, having tasted the leaves, it will still die.
The instructions say that the effect of the drug does not deteriorate with changes in humidity and air temperature. But if you read the reviews of summer residents who sprayed their acres with Beetle Beetle, it becomes clear that the effectiveness of the composition decreases if it rains. Do not process bushes in strong winds.
You need to spray the beds in the morning; it is recommended to complete the procedure before 10 o’clock or do the work after 6 pm. For one hundred square meters of crop, 3 liters of the prepared solution is enough. To spray dense and tall bushes, the consumption of the composition should be increased.
Advantages of the drug
Among the various poisons used in the battle against insects that destroy entire fields planted with nightshade plants, the Beetle Beetle has clear advantages:
- The effect is achieved at any stage of potato development.
- The culture is not harmed.
- Adults die within a day.
- After treatment, the larvae no longer hatch from the eggs.
Even if the composition does not fall on an insect feeding on the leaves of the bush, paralysis and death await it.
Before the ovary appears, the preparation can be sprayed on eggplants and tomatoes, which the beetle adores no less than potatoes. Toxins do not accumulate in tubers if treatment is carried out 20 days before harvest.
Protection from poison
In order not to be poisoned by the substances that form the basis of the product used to kill the Colorado potato beetle, you must not ignore safety precautions when storing the drug, during the preparation of the solution, and when processing the beds.
Before diluting the composition, you must put on gloves and rubber boots and protect your respiratory tract with a respirator. You should start work when there are no pets or children nearby, so as not to harm their health.
During spraying, you should not drink, have a snack, or light a cigarette. It is not known whether the drug can be combined with other poisons, so it is better not to mix such drugs. After completing work, be sure to take a shower.
Reviews from farmers and summer residents about the Beetle Beetle are mixed. In small areas it was possible to get rid of the arthropod striped insect in one spraying procedure. In the fields, after treatment with this insecticide, the pests also died, but after a while they reappeared. The beetles fly long distances, overwinter deep in the ground, where they crawl in June after breeding.People have been fighting them unsuccessfully for almost 70 years.
Treating leaves and stems with a beetle eater paralyzes insects. This drug effectively fights the pest. But adult individuals have a good sense of smell; sensing the attractive smell of their favorite crop, they fly over to feast on the leaves. Even with the complete destruction of Colorado potato beetles in the garden, it is not a fact that they will not appear next year.
