Content
A garden or field free from pests is the dream of every farmer. But in practice, this result is not easy to achieve. Especially if the main crop grown is potatoes.
Harm of the Colorado potato beetle to potatoes
With the onset of warm weather, garden plants, including potatoes, begin to grow rapidly. But as soon as the temperature in the top layer of soil rises to 14 degrees, the Colorado potato beetles that have spent the winter in it crawl out and immediately begin their harmful activities. It is especially dangerous if this moment coincides with the emergence of potato shoots. Small sprouts are excellent prey for harmful leaf-eating pests. But potatoes simply have no chance of growing without the help of a gardener.
The beetle reproduces by laying eggs on immature plants. If there is a large number of pests, oviposition occurs on almost every bush. And at this moment, the best way to combat the pest is to destroy the beetle eggs manually. You will have to carefully examine each bush, especially the leaves on the underside, where the eggs actually are.
The potato harvest is formed due to the well-developed leaf apparatus in which photosynthesis occurs. If the leaves suffer from pests, then a large number of large tubers will not be able to form.
This increases the risk of developing diseases, including late blight.
Therefore, the fight against this striped leaf-eating beetle is the primary task of every gardener. There are many ways to help limit the number of beetles and larvae, but the most effective of them is chemical.
There are a lot of drugs that help fight pests. They are called insecticides. In order to avoid getting used to a particular product, the insecticide needs to be changed. Therefore, it makes sense to turn to new developments. One of them is Apache from the Colorado potato beetle.
It is created on the basis of chemicals from the group of nicotinoids. Tobacco dust, which contains nicotine, has long been used to control pests on plants. But nicotine is a strong poison. Modern nicotinoids created on the basis of nicotine are devoid of many of its disadvantages and have acquired new advantages.
- They accumulate well in the receptors of insects, but poorly in the receptors of warm-blooded animals, and, therefore, humans.
- These are not volatile substances.
- They have high biological activity and accumulate well in plants, while not being phytotoxic.
- The costs of drugs based on them are low.
- They are unstable in the soil, which means they quickly decompose into safe substances.
Clothianidin, the active ingredient in the Apache insecticide, also belongs to the group of nicotinoids.
Apache insecticide
Japan has always been famous for the quality of the products it produces. Apache insecticide, which came to our market in 2008 from the land of the rising sun, is fully consistent with Japanese quality. Named after a warlike Indian tribe, it is merciless to the Colorado potato beetle, against which it is designed to fight. Reviews from consumers who have used Apache rate the drug very highly.
Action
The concentration of the active substance in the drug is half its weight. The beige colored granules dissolve well in water. When diluted, the drug does not form dust particles, as happens when diluting a powder. And good solubility will protect the leaves from burns. Attention! The drug Apache is quickly absorbed by the leaf apparatus of potatoes and retains its concentration for about a month, remaining poisonous to adults and larvae of the Colorado potato beetle, reliably protecting plants even when young shoots grow.
The target of the insecticide is the insect's nervous system. Nerve impulses are blocked, which causes overexcitation and death of the pest. The peculiarity of the drug Apache is its almost instantaneous effect, noticeable within half an hour after treatment.
This triple attack on the beetle ensures the effectiveness of the poison.
Features of application
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To treat the Colorado potato beetle with Apache insecticide, you need to know how to breed it. In a summer cottage where potato plantings are small, one package of the drug is enough, which contains 5 sachets of only 0.5 g. The instructions for use advise: dilute 0.5 g of the drug in a ten-liter bucket of water.But you can do it differently. First, prepare the so-called mother solution by mixing 2.5 g of the product with a liter of water. After thorough mixing, every 200 ml of mother liquor is diluted with water to 10 liters. To process one hundred square meters of potato field, 5 liters of Apache solution are required.
Treat the potatoes with a sprayer, thoroughly wetting the entire surface of the leaves.
In addition, the drug will not be absorbed by the plants, but will evaporate from the surface of the leaves, which will reduce the effectiveness of the treatment.
The harvest after treatment can be harvested no earlier than 2 weeks later.
Toxicity
The description of the drug says that it belongs to group 3 danger for humans; it is also moderately dangerous for fish.
Apache is the highest danger for bees - for them it has the first, highest danger class.
When working with Apache solution, use a respirator, protective suit and gloves. After treatment, you need to change clothes and wash.
The Colorado potato beetle is a dangerous pest that can leave a gardener without a harvest. Fighting it is a mandatory agrotechnical technique.
