It's the Three-lined, Two-horned, Flying Orange Potato Eater

Some people might remember the old song about the One-eyed, One-horned, Flying Purple People Eater.  Well, this is the Three-lined, Two-horned, Flying Orange Potato Eater, aka the Three-lined Potato Beetle:

Given the name, one might assume that these little flying beetles mainly eat lots of potatoes, or at least potato leaves. While they do eat potatoes and anything in the nightshade family, including tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant, their favorite food is actually tomatillos.

I can vouch for this.

Both the adult beetles and the larvae devour the plant leaves.  The larvae hatch from orange eggs that are laid in clusters, usually on the underside of the leaves along a vein.

The larvae of the Three-lined Potato Beetle quite possibly qualify for the prize of one of the most disgusting animals out there.  When I first saw one, I wasn't sure if it was a slug or a little pile of poop.

winner of the 'Ugliest Baby' award?

I was not that far off the mark - the larvae cover themselves with their own excrement, which is actually toxic from the larvae dining on plants in the nightshade family.  Possible predators take one whiff of the toxic poop and realize they aren't so hungry after all.  Scientist call this protective poop a 'fecal shield'.

I call it 'ewwww.'

Sorry, but your offspring are just plain disgusting.

In order to control the advances of the Three-lined Potato Beetle in small gardens, you can just handpick them.  I crush them when I see them, but since they have a natural instinct to fall to the ground when you touch them, another easy method is to hold a jar of soapy water under them and let them fall into that and drown.  Check carefully under plant leaves, as they are often holding little rendezvous under there.

No!!!  No making more babies on my tomatillo plants!

I also check under the leaves for eggs and larvae and just destroy the ones I see.  Removing nearby weeds in the nightshade family can help control the beetle population, as well as placing row covers early in the season, as long as you rotate crops.  (If you are growing tomatillos or potatoes in soil that has previously held something from the nightshade family, row covers won't help, since the Three-lined Potato Beetle overwinters in the soil.)

For large gardens, if handpicking is too difficult, one can spray thoroughly with insecticidal soap or neem oil, which kills the eggs and larvae.  Some growers will also use chemical means, such as permethrin, bifenthrin, or pyrethrin.

So far the handpicking has been working quite well, and my tomatillo plants are surviving and thriving despite the onslaught.  My guard is up against these three-lined, two-horned, flying orange potato eaters, or in my case, tomatillo-eaters.

(Not to mention the poopy larvae, who sure look strange to me.)

Linking with Nature Notes - a blog party celebrating nature!