Sweet Potato Vine Pest

As I indicated in an earlier post, JoAnne and I got creative this year and made our own menagerie of flowering pots. I don't have the exact number but it was somewhere in the area of 15 - 20, that are now spread around our yard.

One of the plants that we really like, along with the licorice plant, is the potato vine. The golden color along grabs your attention, not to mention how the vine grows and spreads with ease. These make super accents to any flower pot, even stand alone.

This year, however, I noticed that something was eating and and leaving small holes throughout the leaves. Well, upon further inspection I came across the beetles in the pictures below, which are Tortoise Beetles. These are pretty handsome little beetles, as far as beetles goes. This, along with the fact that they really don't do too much damage, means that I can't let them be and enjoy them rather than spend time catching and squishing them.

Looked like these two were getting to know each other a little bit, wink wink...



This particular beetle flew off during our photo shot but I was able to track him onto the leaf of our honeysuckle vine plant.