Colorado Beetles

[purplelily]

Hi, does anyone know how to get rid of these? It's for a vegetable garden in France.

Thanks!

[heathfield]

Difficult, and a perennial problem in Europe. Traditional method for small plots is actually to remove them by hand as soon as you spot them. They're resistant to insecticides, and become rapidly immune to them. Commercially, crop rotation holds back their numbers, and some farmers in Canada have even resorted to tractor-mounted vacuum cleaners to remove them from crops!! There's info on the little darlings here

[purplelily]

Thanks heathfield, had a feeling this was the case - we currently remove them by hand, but I was hoping there was a newfound magical cure somewhere! :(

Thank you! :)

[Thunderbird+]

I dont know if you are aware of this but this beetle has long been a notifiable pest in the Uk, not sure about France, but it may be worth checking.

[purplelily]

Thanks Thunderbird - as heathfield suggests, this is a perennial problem in Europe and it's accepted that they're pretty much everywhere.

Thanks again both!