What ARE these things on my potatoes?

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Sue_WA Seattle, WA(Zone 8b) Aug 09, 2005

OK, disclaimer- I looked on the net and now I come to you. I have these white bugs that JUMP off of the potato leaves. There are holes all over the leaves and I am only assuming that they are doing the damage. I have not peeked or dug up any of the potatoes.........yet. Should I?

These white bugs look like aphids on sterioids! Any ideas of what they are? And most importantly.........what should I do?

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MaryE Baker City, OR(Zone 5b) Aug 09, 2005

Try spraying the leaves with water from your hose to knock the bugs off the plants. You might kill a bunch of them that way, and if you do it a few times could get rid of them without resorting to poisons. Something like Safer's soap might take care of them and is not horribly toxic like some of the stuff on the market. If the damage is not real bad the bugs might not effect your crop at all.

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TuttiFrutti Spokane Valley, WA(Zone 5b) Aug 09, 2005

Maybe a potato leaf hopper? http://www.gaipm.org/top50/leafhoppers.html

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Sue_WA Seattle, WA(Zone 8b) Aug 09, 2005

I knew that I would find an answer here. :)

MaryE - I have kept them at bay with the hose :)

Tuttifrutti- you hit the nail on the head (hm, should that be head on the nail? LOL!)

. The mature leafhopper is the culprit. Gosh I just don't know how I couldn't find that info on the web! Usually I'm pretty good at it! ;-) And another thing that confirms it is that tomatoes are growing less than 5 feet away. Well now to figure out how to kill them. I'm thinking of a soap based spray.........

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