Colorado Beetle ‐ Recent Work in Preventing its Establishment in Britain1

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Abstract
Current measures for excluding the Colorado beetle from Britain and for intercepting it are reviewed. Publicity is used to obtain a high rate of interceptions on non‐host commodities by the public; at‐entry inspection of imported commodities is considered less effective. Eradication procedures are described using recent incidents in field crops of potatoes and rye as examples. Application of available data to published biological criteria indicates that Colorado beetle could survive and damage crops in Britain. A simple cost/benefit analysis is also attempted in order to compare living with the pest with excluding it. At present exclusion seems the less costly option. Noting geographical variations recently discovered in Colorado beetle, the author proposes that the EPPO region should continue to exclude this pest from America.