Meet Cassida rubiginosa…aka, thistle defoliating beetle, green tortise beetle, eucalyptis beetle
After a little creative internet keyword and image searching…the mystery of the artichoke beetles is solved.
Unfortunately, as these links show, some farms have released them as biological thistle control for their fields. Not good news for artichoke growers!
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/thistlecontrol.html
http://www.ewrs.org/BCWG/aims_and_objectives.htm
Just talked with a woman who bought an artichoke plant from a local nursery and it was covered in the beetles, too.
I sprayed the two artichokes with pump spray natural (organic) insecticide from the greenhouse…it looks like it did the trick. I have weeded well and trimmed the infested plants and plan to water deep for a while and fertilize them well to strengthen them.
