Colorado Potato Beetle: Tips for Controlling the Potato Super Pest

Despite its name, the Colorado potato beetle (CPB) is not confined to just Colorado. It has swept across the U.S., wreaking havoc on potato crops and leading to a long rap sheet of devastating outbreaks.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison deemed the CPB a “super pest” because it has a deep pool of diversity within its genome that allows different populations to quickly develop resistance to control methods. As of 2022, the CPB has developed resistance to more than 50 different kinds of insecticides.

How to Spot Colorado Potato Beetle

CPB overwinters underground in fields and surrounding areas. Adults emerge in the spring — about the same time potato plants emerge from the ground — and can be identified by the following characteristics:

• Oval shape
• 3/8 in. long
• Yellow-orange prothorax (the area behind the head)
• Yellowish-white wings that are covered with narrow black stripes

CPB lays clusters of bright yellow-orange eggs on the undersides of potato leaves. Each female can lay up to 350 eggs, which hatch in as little as two weeks. The eggs turn dark red just before hatching.

CPB larvae may be more difficult to spot, but they’re a destructive force in potato fields. Larvae hatch with brick red bodies and black heads. Older larvae turn pink to salmon in color. All larvae have rows of dark spots on the sides of their bodies.

How Much Damage Can CPB Cause?

Both larvae and adult CPB feed on potato leaves and, if left untreated, can completely defoliate your plants and impact your bottom line. According to Iowa State University, older larvae are responsible for as much as 75% of feeding damage.

Additionally, Iowa State found that potatoes are highly sensitive to the effects of defoliation when tubers are beginning to bulk. Tuber bulking begins soon after flowering, making this time critical for CPB management.

How to Control CPB

If you’ve dealt with this pest before, you know CPB isn’t easy to defeat. Luckily, an insecticide from Syngenta with a novel mode of action is available to help you take on this pest.

Zivalgo^® insecticide, powered by PLINAZOLIN^® technology, is a robust tool that can help protect your yield potential in the fight against CPB. Zivalgo acts by contact and ingestion, delivering exceptional foliar protection across multiple life stages of the pest. With a formulation that delivers rugged durability and impressive residual control, Zivalgo protects potato crops, helping preserve your crop quality.

CPB is notoriously difficult to control due to its ability to rapidly develop resistance. Zivalgo can play an important role in insect pest and resistance management programs thanks to its novel mode of action. By incorporating Zivalgo into your spray rotation, you can gain a powerful tool against a pest with demonstrated resistance like CPB.

Another option to help fight off this yield-robbing pest is Minecto^® Pro insecticide. Minecto Pro leverages a combination of two active ingredients in a convenient premix formulation to deliver reliable control of CPB.

When it comes to “super pests,” rotating powerful products with different modes of action like Zivalgo and Minecto Pro can maximize your yield potential and protect potatoes. To learn more about resistance management and CPB, contact your Syngenta representative.