Beetle: Friend or Foe? Organic Gardening

[Guest guest]

Oh yes I am positive. They sap the life out of the leaves, leaving white spots.

Eventually

the leaves turn brown and whither. Healthy plants can tolerate a few, but too

many and it

is death to the plant and a bunch of colorful fat happy bettles!

 

Murgantia histrionica is the latin name

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9b/Cotton_Harlequin_Bugs.j\

p

g/757px-Cotton_Harlequin_Bug

 

this should give you an image (yes they are beautiful). Mature bugs are the

only ones that

fly but the teens also suck the leaves. Eggs are like little tiny barrels in

rows on the

underside of the leaves. They seem to prefer collards above anything else, my

lacinato is

still ok but has spots. We still get plenty of kale/collard/cabbage/gai lan but

if I was a

commercial grower I'd be in trouble. They like all cabbage families, brassica

oleraceas, all

varietals. Only direct extermination works, very unpleasant and very

un-vegetarian (sorry

folks)

 

Count yourself lucky that you do not have them! We have them in both gardens,

Highland

park and Altadena, Are you in San Diego county?

 

Roseta

 

 

, " slim_langer " <slim_langer wrote:

>

> Hi Roseta,

> Are you sure your beetles are harmful? I recently acquired a type of

> beetle in the tops of my kale and collards in SoCal. It looks similar

> but not the same as pictures I can find of " Harlequin " beetles (which

> belong to South + Central America according to the encyclopedia). Mine

> are about 1/3 to 1/2 inch long with dark purple uppers dotted with

> orange spots, underneath they have yellow stripes; they have a

> symmetrically ellipsoid body with no long legs. Anyway they are not

> eating my kale or collard leaves, nor apparently laying eggs there. I

> get no holes or gnawed folliage from where they've been. Also, I

> closed one in a jar with collard and kales leaves for three days and

> there were no marks left on the leaves. Their behavior is docile,

> reminding me very much of big lady bugs and I thought they may be

> cleaning the leaves, of aphids and other pests. The encyclopedia says

> " Harlequin " beetles live on tree-sap and burrow and lay their eggs

> under the bark of TREES. I have pictures but can't post them to the

> group as my connection just times out.

>

> Wondering,

>

> Slim

>

>

> , " rosetalleo " <rosetalleo@>

> wrote:

> >

> >

> > We are sucessful but by no means problem free. The largest problem

> > right now are harlequin beetles or bugs in our brassicas (kale,

> > collards, cauliflowers, turnips). Nothing seems to work on them short

> > of hand by hand extermination. Hot pepper spray mixed with a mild

> > shampoo or dish soap works for most aphids but needs to be re

> applied.... Good luck to you!

> >

> > Roseta

> >

>