Mustard and bite - preparing a solution for the Colorado potato beetle, methods of use, recipes and concentration

Not only hail in the middle of summer, prolonged rains or drought can become a disaster for gardeners. Very often, the Colorado potato beetle causes irreparable damage to the crop. Fighting it requires a lot of effort and can take up all your time, and the result is not always the same. There are many chemicals available against this pest, but they are unsafe for the environment and people. Fortunately, people have invented many methods for getting rid of the Colorado potato beetle on their haciendas, and what is especially valuable is that these methods are non-toxic and are sometimes more effective than chemical products. Mustard and vinegar are just one of these effective methods.

• 2 Principle of operation of the components
• 3 Cooking methods
• 4 We use the product correctly - the effect is guaranteed
• 5 In what cases is it better not to use vinegar and mustard?
• 6 Video: ways to combat the Colorado potato beetle

Colorado potato beetle - what is it?

This bug is a small, not very pleasant creature of black-yellow or black-brownish color, with brown legs. The shape of his body is oval, rather convex. A characteristic feature is the black stripes on the back, by which it is easily identified among other beetle-like insects.

The main target of the Colorado potato beetle is tender potato leaves.

Colorado beetles have a truly brutal appetite. In the spring, having left their winter underground shelters, they are able to walk a kilometer or more a day, looking for acceptable food. Their favorite delicacy is tender young potato leaves. But this striped creature is dangerous not only for potato crops. It can cause considerable damage to the harvest of eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, as well as other nightshade crops.

The larvae pose a greater danger to the crop than adult beetles, since they are able to destroy almost all planted potatoes in just two dozen days of their growth and development.

One of the characteristics of the Colorado striped beetle is its addiction to toxic chemicals. Every year insects develop more and more stable immunity against chemicals. This makes it even more relevant to use such folk methods as mixtures of mustard and vinegar, to which beetles do not develop immunity.

Operating principle of the components

It must be said that mustard itself does not kill striped garden pests. The effect of using mustard is that Colorado beetles simply cannot stand the smell of this plant and, accordingly, will bypass the tenth expensive bed with a mustard smell. In fact, mustard is nothing more than a repellent for the voracious natives of Colorado.

Repellents are plants that have a repellent effect and secrete certain substances that cause intolerance in certain insects.

Mustard has a repellent effect on both adult beetles and larvae. But it’s not just the mustard aroma that drives away the Colorado potato beetle: the leaves of potato shoots treated with a mustard solution completely lose all their taste appeal to pests.

Another advantage of mustard is that it is compatible with the vast majority of any other chemical or folk remedies used today in agriculture against the Colorado potato beetle.

Colorado potato beetle on potato leaves

There is another assistant in protecting potatoes from Colorado predators - vinegar. This substance has a sour taste and a sharp smell that hits the nose; If you are not careful, contact with vinegar can be dangerous. When dealing with this liquid, some precautions should be taken. Do not bring a container of vinegar close to your face and inhale sharply - this can burn the respiratory tract, nasopharynx, and mucous membranes of the eyes. Do not allow undiluted vinegar to come into contact with your skin - you may get burns. Getting vinegar on damaged skin (wounds, scratches, etc.) is especially dangerous.

Vinegar affects the Colorado potato beetle differently than mustard. A solution with a sufficiently strong concentration of vinegar is able to penetrate directly into the body, where it burns out all the insides of the insect. But to get this effect, vinegar must have a concentration of 80%, which will also have a detrimental effect on potatoes. Therefore, when planning to use vinegar to get rid of Colorado potato beetles, first dilute it so that the concentration does not exceed 9–10%. This will be enough for insects to forget the way to your garden, and such a solution is completely safe for plants.

Nuances of using the product

When using dry mustard powder, the weather does not matter much, but if you use liquid mixtures, wait for dry, windless weather. Because on a rainy day or with heavy dew, the product will not be as effective.

In dry weather, the effect will last a week or a week and a half, but if there is an abundance of pests, the treatment will need to be repeated.

If you mix mustard with vinegar, the yellow powder activates all its caustic properties and ensures effective elimination of all kinds of pests. Vinegar has long been used to make folk remedies designed to combat garden pests.

Important: When using acetic acid, you need to be very careful, as failure to follow safety precautions can lead to accidents.

Cooking methods

To get rid of the Colorado potato beetle using mustard and vinegar, there are several ways. You can prepare several types of solutions, where both ingredients are mixed in certain proportions or each is used separately; you can make a solution where, in addition to these two components, other substances are added; Or you can remove the pest simply with mustard. Let's look at ways to prepare different solutions.

Mustard powder

• Take two to three large spoons of mustard powder and add 1 liter of cold water. Let the resulting composition brew for a couple of days. Then the mixture is diluted with a bucket of water. The spray solution is ready.
• Instead of cold water, you can use boiling water or hot water, in which case the solution will be prepared faster. The proportions of mustard powder and water remain the same.
• You can also prepare a suspension. To do this, the amount of mustard powder is doubled; the volume of water remains unchanged.
• The effect of using the solution will be more pronounced and destructive for insects if 50 grams of laundry soap are added to the product.
• The mustard solution will be even more effective if you add 100 ml of acetic acid.

The prepared solution is used in any of two ways: potato bushes can be watered or sprayed.

As for the solution with the addition of vinegar, there are options here too.

When using vinegar, remember the concentration of the solution

• You can take a bucket of water and simply add 100 ml of acetic acid there. This is the easiest and fastest recipe.
• If you need to prepare a composition that is more lethal for beetles, do the following. For one bucket of water we take 100 ml of vinegar, one pack of mustard powder, 100 ml of turpentine, one or two glasses of wormwood tincture, 300 or 400 grams of onion peel infusion. Don't forget to add two fresh garlic heads. Mix all the ingredients, and the thermonuclear bomb for Colorado beetles is ready.

Whatever preparation option you choose, any solution must be filtered before use. All available solution recipes are completely harmless to crops and do not harm the environment.

In addition to those described above, simply sprinkling potato leaves with mustard powder also gives a good effect - for a striped potato leaf hunter, this will already be enough to inflame hostility towards your beds. This treatment lasts for about four days, then it needs to be repeated.

You will provide your potatoes with reliable protection from this harmful insect if you sow mustard between the potato bushes. Freshly growing mustard is just as intolerant to Colorado beetles as powder or solution. You can also additionally sow mustard seeds diagonally between the potatoes.

By the way, the proximity of potatoes and mustard in the same bed helps to repel not only the adult Colorado potato beetle, but also their larvae, and at the same time makes the potato crop unattractive to the wireworm.

Recipes and proportions of folk remedies

Vinegar solution

Helps against various pests:

An interesting recipe for aphids with laundry soap:

Soda solution

Treating Colorado beetles with soda before the first egg laying will reduce the chance of their reproduction. To do this, spray the potato bushes with a solution of 10 liters of water, 0.5 liters of 9% vinegar and 100 g of soda.

A mixture of 75 g of soda and 10 liters of water will help drive away weevils or aphids and destroy fungus from the leaves. Household pests are always a nuisance. Find out whether vinegar helps against bedbugs in the house and apartment, and how to deal with them.

Do you use folk remedies for bugs at home or in the garden?

Not really

Dry poison

Dry poisons are dissolved in water according to the instructions and sprayed on the areas affected by insects. Substances that are part of dry products:

1. Look for dry poisons against the larvae of flies and midges, which contain S - methoproprene - this substance interferes with development.
2. Iron phosphate helps against snails and slugs. It is used as an active ingredient in powders produced by industry.
3. Dry mixtures with diazinon help against ants. The substance has a hazard class 3, that is, it is moderately dangerous for people and animals, and fatal for fish. It does not cause burns or leaf fall in plants.
4. Cypermethrin is a synthetic drug against cockroaches and bugs in the house, in particular ants and silverfish. Indicated for use indoors and outdoors.

We use the product correctly - the effect is guaranteed

There are several rules that should be followed when preparing and using protective solutions of vinegar and mustard against Colorado potato beetles. Compliance with these rules guarantees high efficiency from the use of the drug and the safety of your potatoes.

It is advisable to process potato plantings in the evening hours, when the heat of the day has subsided. This should also be done in warm, but not hot and windless weather.

For the treatment to be effective, you need a lot of solution. Don’t be afraid to go overboard with the quantity - the more abundantly the potato bushes are processed, the greater the chance that the harvest will remain intact. It is also necessary to monitor the regularity of treatment and avoid situations where the validity period of the last spraying/irrigation has already expired, but there is still no new one.

It is recommended to stop processing potatoes 20 days before the expected harvest.

If the solution is vinegar, then you should not water it; it is better to treat the leaves of the plants. In this case, you need to ensure that the solution remains on the plant itself, soaking the leaves and stems, and does not flow onto the ground. You can either water or spray the leaves with mustard solutions.

Potato harvest

Application of dry mustard powder

Dry mustard powder is an excellent option if you need to use it over a large area. The effect here is quite simple - the spice emits an unpleasant odor - it repels parasites not only from a specific bush, but from the entire garden plot. Colorado beetle larvae will also disappear from bushes treated with a natural repellent, since they will not like the powder.

There is no special recipe provided here. The only important condition is the freshness of the mustard. It is necessary to scatter a natural repellent in places where beetles accumulate most, as well as between the rows. In addition, the plants themselves also need to be treated.

After such treatment, the duration of action of the product will be for two to four days. This time is enough for the larvae to leave the vegetation; adult members of the family will leave the plant on the first day.

You can enhance the effect of mustard powder with the help of various substances; for example, professionals recommend combining it with a vinegar solution.

In what cases is it better not to use vinegar and mustard?

Despite the fact that mustard and mustard-vinegar solutions are very effective, there are certain conditions under which this product is not recommended to be used. So, in what cases will the use of mustard and vinegar not have the desired result?

• If the product is not fresh. It is useless to use a solution older than three hours. Therefore, such solutions are never stored and are prepared immediately before use.
• There is no point in processing potato shoots during the day in the sun. In direct sunlight, the solution will quickly lose its quality.
• When processing potato beds in rainy weather, in this case the entire solution will simply be washed away. Also, do not start spraying potatoes if weather signs clearly indicate that rain is on the way.
• It is also not recommended to use mustard-vinegar solution immediately after rain, after heavy dew or in foggy weather.
• Processing potatoes during strong winds will also not bring the desired effect.
• Using the product in the morning or afternoon is also not a good idea. It is best to process in the evening, towards sunset.

Precautionary measures

When preparing a mixture of mustard and vinegar for processing garden crops, it is important to adhere to safety measures. Mustard powder contains glycosides, which, if they come into contact with mucous membranes, can cause a severe burning sensation. Therefore, when preparing a solution for treating plants against the Colorado potato beetle, it is necessary to use protective gloves.

Acetic acid can cause serious burns to the skin. You need to be careful if there are scratches or cuts on the skin. Even with minor damage, table vinegar can cause a burn. Not to mention the mucous membranes. Vinegar vapors are also harmful and can cause burns to the mucous membranes of the mouth, respiratory tract and eyes.

When not to use

Solutions of mustard and vinegar are quite effective in combating the Colorado potato beetle. But the maximum effect can only be obtained if you use the product correctly. When should you not use a mustard-vinegar mixture?

If the homemade mixture is stale, cooked for more than three hours. The preparation of mustard and vinegar cannot be stored for a long time, so they are prepared immediately before use. There will be no effect if the treatment is carried out in the summer heat. The solution quickly loses its properties when exposed to ultraviolet rays .

Do not process in rainy weather. The solution is simply washed off with water. Also, you should not expect an effect if the treatment was carried out in windy weather.

Common Mistakes

Common mistakes made by novice gardeners include: incorrect preparation of the solution, failure to follow the recipe, and incorrect timing.

Mistakes made by summer residents:

• Root treatment with a solution of vinegar and mustard, especially with the addition of ammonia to enhance the effect - this cannot be done, it can ruin the bush.
• Treatment in rain, fog or before watering - all components are simply washed off with water, without having time to have the desired effect on pests.
• Using stale solution. As soon as the mixture of mustard and vinegar is diluted with water in a bucket, you must immediately begin processing.
• Spraying on a hot day. It is recommended to treat garden crops against the striped pest in the evening.

Video: ways to combat the Colorado potato beetle

Probably, someday an ideal remedy will be invented that will allow us to get rid of the Colorado potato beetle once and for all and at the same time be absolutely harmless to garden crops, humans and animals. But at the moment there is no such remedy among the drugs produced by the chemical industry. Therefore, instead of spending money on expensive, toxic and not always effective insecticidal products, try removing beetles from your area using any of the solutions that include vinegar or mustard. These recipes have been tested by thousands of summer residents, and they will certainly help you too!

• Author: Elena Shikhova
• Print

My name is Elena. Hobbies - music, literature, attending concerts, dancing, photography/Photoshop, learning to edit videos, regional studies, history of Europe and North America, history of Catholicism, cycling, writing various stories, sometimes short stories and poems, sometimes modeling from plasticine and polymer clay. Rate this article:

1. 5
2. 4
3. 3
4. 2
5. 1

(38 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
Share with your friends!