Sevin spray.

I had a serious attack this year and Sevin did them in; although after spraying I went through and squashed all the larvae I saw and smushed the eggs under the leaves.
That was a month ago and they tain't come back.

You need an organic pesticide called spinosad. I have found it at box stores (look for the active ingredient) as well as organic food stores. It is first cousin to Bt and gives good control of Colorado potato beetle. If you had that many this year, you will have them again next year. You can use spinosad to clean the plants before putting them under rowcovers. This year, hand picking and 2-3 spinosad sprays are your best strategy. Good luck.

Here is a link that might be useful: spinosad

It seems like I see the adult beetle first, then eggs and then larva. It looks like the spinosad is only good for the larva. Should I use another product (Sevin or eight) (along with hand picking) to kill the adult beetles and then switch over to Spinosad once if I start seeing larva? I am not an organic gardener, but I do like to minimize chemicals
Thanks

I gave up on raising potatoes until this summer.
But a friend of mine has been successful growing potatoes and has not had any problem with bugs, etc, and after hearing my complaint she told me this:

It is called "On Top of the Ground".
Early in April ( we are zone 3 in northern Wisconsin)
sprouted potatoes are place on top of the soil and then old hay or straw is forked over them to a depth of say 6- to 8 inches. No more care is given them in the conventional manner.
Well, I have been sucessful this summer, and after seeing a few bugs I realized that some of the old hay was not snugged up against one or two growing plants. So I crush maybe 6 bugs and dusted Sevin. That happened earlier in July.
These potatoes are now blooming, and after taking a peek I see I have light colored, clean potatoes.
The plants are dark green and growing even though we have experienced another drought.
You Tube has a video of Ruth Stout explaining the method of planting potatoes on top of the ground. Judy

Bucky:
If you see the adults first it is because they are the one that have flown in to lay eggs.
Go out and turn the leaves over, you will see patches of yellow orange cluster of eggs under there.
Thoroughly crush those eggs, and the adults.

If you do not-- the larvae will be showing up shortly.
If you turn over a leaf and see an ugly blackish patch that is the eggs just hatching.
I dusted with Sevin and that did nothing.
I sprayed with Sevin and the same day did a THOROUGH inspection of plants with bug crushing and that totally got rid of them. (that amounted to hours on my hands and knees)

Now there have been many/most years where I have zero and suddenly there has been a huge infestation so one HAS to check every year.

It seems to not matter whether I plant deeply or shallow with mulch, if they are coming, they are coming.

You can also drop the adults into a bottle or jar of soapy water. Use gloves. I'm squeamish and prefer this to crushing them. They drown instantly anyway.

Seeing that many populations are resistant to insecticides, hand-picking is the most effective for adults.

For larvae, hand-picking again works, and Spinosad is also supposed to be effective at controlling them.

I have been growing potatoes for over 30 years and haven't seen any CPB foe over 20 years--until this year. Even then I never saw any adult bugs but I did find some larvae. I quick spray with pyrethrin did them in. I went back about a week later with another spray when I noticed some more nympths oon the leaves and that was the end of the spraying required. The plants came back and did just fine--in fact those that were affected are still growing.

It's amazing how you can stop problems early if you make it a habit to thoroghly check the leaves of your plants. Thant's were most bugs start amd you can often confine them to a single generation, which you can make short work of.

Funny in my area despite growing potatoes each year this year has seen very few cpb or their kissing cousin the cucumber beetle. Below the soil all I've got is wireworms. I'll trade you! lol I find the only way to really go after them is to go after them. I'm cruel with this bug and will kill it even while it is mating with a pair of pliers. Look under the leaves for eggs and remove. There are probably things they don't like so border your beds with rosemary, french marigolds, etc...wireworms are worse though. My potatoes look like they were machine gunned. Do not plant praties on that bed until you take action. Rotate always with legumes(peas, beans etc).