In addition to potato, Colorado potato beetles can be a serious pest of tomato, eggplant, and pepper. Colorado potato beetles overwinter in the soil as adults. The Colorado Potato Beetle is a yellow insect with alternating black and white strips down its back. They become active again in the spring and feed on weeds and volunteer on early planted potatoes. They will even enter the soil to attack emerging foliage.
Female beetles lay batches of about two dozen orange-yellow eggs on the underside of the leaves .
Each female can lay 500 or more eggs over a four to five week period. The eggs hatch in four to nine days and the larvae begin to feed on potato foliage. The larvae are humpbacked with two rows of black spots. The larvae usually feed in groups and damage can be severe. The larval stage lasts two to three weeks.