"jshofstra" wrote in news:1117974888.696848.285360
@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

I have a garden in an area with many other gardens. Some of the other
folks plant potatoes. In past years my tomato plans have been ravaged
by potato beetles. Are there any ways to prevent them from attacking my
plants in the first place? Organic solutions would be great.



I got one of those racquet shaped bug zappers a while ago. Total POS
quality, but works fine. Supposed to get 3000 V with 2x1.5V D batteries.
With NiMH @2x1.2V it's not enough to kill a standard house with momentary
contact, unless you get lucky and you blow it in two. However it's enough
to stun it for several seconds, enough time to stuff the body in a envelope
and post to Suriname. You could also put the body back on the racquet for
a few seconds to make sure it's dead. A bug vac might work better if you
can find one.

Anyway knocked off a striped cucumber bettle yesterday. You could probably
do the same with the potato beetles. Collect them, mash them up and inter
them around your plants. Sooner or later some enterprising wag will get
wind and start growing potatoes just for the beetles and pokey folks.

Here are some randomly selected citations:
http://sturmsoft.com/Writing/guide_to-
gardening/recipes_for_alternative_pesticid.htm#Bug%20Juice

or

http://www.countrycaregardens.com/pe...ectcontrol.htm

Leaving dead mosquitoes on your skin doesn't seem to work, but ringing a
pot with aphid corpses may. Perhaps if you can't get rid of the potato
bugs, you can get rid of the potato growers. giggle