How to use mustard against the Colorado potato beetle

Why is the Colorado potato beetle dangerous?

A pest known to all gardeners - the Colorado potato beetle feeds on the foliage and tops of young vegetables. For some reason, it is generally accepted that he eats potato greens. But the parasite also tasted eggplants, bell peppers, even tomatoes. He eats a huge amount of greenery so that the plant cannot bear fruit. The beetle hibernates in the ground, and with the appearance of young leaves it crawls to the surface and eats them. If he eats a young bush of potatoes, then root crops will not form, there will be no harvest. The same will happen with the more tender eggplant or pepper bushes.
The beetle itself is green, its larvae eat greens, and the female lays her eggs from below the leaves. There are many poisons used against this striped pest, but they are usually sprayed on bushes, and eggs under the leaves may not be affected. In addition, harmful chemicals can be used at the very beginning, and when the ovary is already formed, it becomes dangerous for the crop.
Many gardeners prefer to do without chemistry at all, mechanically destroying beetles. They methodically go around the garden as often as possible, collect adults, pick off leaves with eggs, then destroy both. This is very frustrating and not very effective. There are various folk remedies with the use of substances less toxic to humans in the fight against pests. Mustard has recently stood out among them.

Useful properties of mustard

We eat Sarepta mustard, and there are also white and black mustard. It happens from powder or from grains, the taste also differs: it can be spicy or sweet. This is a hot spice that we usually eat with meat. She has a lot of useful properties. With moderate use, it slows down the aging of the skin, protects vision, calms the nervous system, protects blood vessels, improves digestion and memory.

Even in the fight against bronchitis it helps, it's not for nothing that we put mustard plasters. But there are people with individual intolerance to this product. And someone cannot eat mustard due to exacerbations of diseases, but in general it is a very useful spice. Today it is used very widely: they wash dishes for it (perfectly cleanses from fat), even make masks for hair and face. Read on to find out how this wonderful remedy can be used against garden beetles.

How to use

Mustard is successfully used in addition to cooking and cosmetology. Many summer residents plant it on the site to scare away insects, prevent weeds from growing, even in order to improve the structure of the soil. It grows quickly, does not allow the soil to leach, cleans the ground from phytophthora and scab. It helps to get rid of wireworms, slugs and moths. Mustard is capable of expelling the Colorado potato beetle.

Mustard should be planted, let it grow between the rows of potatoes and eggplants. During flowering, it can be plucked, spread among plants that may suffer from the Colorado potato beetle. You can process potato plants with this tool: in a bucket of water, you need to dilute a pack (100 g) of mustard powder and 100 g of vinegar (9%). Processing is carried out at the beginning of the growth of the tops and then, when there are already many beetles around.

You can also find this recipe: 200 g of mustard powder is diluted in 10 liters of water and insisted for 12 hours. When infused, vinegar (150 g) is also added to it. Of course, you need to process the bushes carefully, not just sprinkle on top, but so that it gets on the lower part of the leaves. It is advisable to do this not before the rain. The Colorado potato beetle does not like the smell of mustard very much, it will leave, will not live where there is a lot of its smell.

Mustard with vinegar is a very effective pest repellent.

They also use onion peels, nettle infusion, vinegar with ash, soap and vinegar - all these means help scare off beetles with varying degrees of success, but they do not harm human health and the environment.

Growing mustard at home

Mustard is easy to grow on your site. This is a cute and unpretentious plant. The seeds are placed in the ground to a depth of 1-1.5 cm every 10-15 cm and watered systematically. And after 3 days, seedlings appear. It does not require any special care, you just need to water and loosen the soil. It is difficult to overestimate the benefits of this humble plant.

Video "Fighting beetles in the garden"

For ways of dealing with a garden pest, see this video.