On dealing with potato bugs.

[macmex]

Over on the April 20-21, 2021 freeze thread Bon and Ron started talking about potato bugs. I realized then that we didn't have thread on this important topic. So, here it is!

I used to have a lot of potato bug damage and can't say that I won't again, sometime, but I'm going on 8 or 9 years, now, with very few. What I did was bite the bullet and not spray for potato bugs. Instead I went through hand picking them, their larva and smashing their eggs (bright yellow clusters on the bottom side of the leaves). At first I had to do this quite a bit. Then, after some weeks, predator showed up and started eating them. I still had to hand pick. But each year, for several years following, the predators showed up a little earlier and took care of the problem a little quicker. 

It got to the point that one time I found some potato bugs and just left them. I was worried that my predators didn't have enough food.

Predators I've observed eating potato bug larva include Assassin bugs (wheel bugs) and spiny soldier bugs.

Here's a photo I took of a spiny soldier bug eating a potato bug larva.

  

[heavyhitterokra]

Awesome photo, George! Thanks, for posting that.

I've seen Wheel bugs sneak up on grasshoppers at night and kill them just like the one in your photo, but a different species of assassin bug than the one shown. (Is the one in your photo is a soldier bug?)  I see those in my garden all the time.  You've given me a knew respect for them!

In the case of the grasshopper, it was weird to see the Wheel Bug killing an insect several times its own size and thousands of times faster than it was. I love Wheel Bugs!  I've never seen a bug kill a Colorado Potato Beetle before, that's very encouraging!

[macmex]

Yes, Ron, that photo is of a spiny soldier bug killing a potato beetle larva. I didn't have a photo of a wheel bug doing that, so I used that one. I LOVE wheel bugs. They do fly, and I find I have fewer in my garden than I used to. They are often to be found on my mulberry tree, where apparently they find more food.

I also find them perched outside my beehives, eating bees. When I do, I move them. Haven't had the heart to kill one. Life is complicated sometimes!

[rdback]

Wheel bugs are certainly a friend, but don't try to pet them. Their bite can be worse than a bee sting.

[macmex]

Indeed. I once tried to step over a barbed wire fence, pushing the top strand down, as I did. I didn't notice a wheel bug on the top strand and pressed directly down on it. It bit me and it really hurt! The wheel bug was fine, flying off. I could have sworn he was chewing me out as he left.

[heavyhitterokra]

I love Ladybugs! In Autumn, when they gather on the bricks on the Southside of my house to overwinter in the soffits, I feel almost as if visited by angels.