Pluck them off and put in a coffee can. Fill the can with lighter fluid, place at the end of driveway and light. My family used to grow potatoes and eggplant and aside from the commercial pesticides we used, they couldn't all be stopped (especially on the eggplant field), so we'd have to pluck them off in the most devastating times. This was growing up on our farm on Eastern Long Island. Since the potato business is vanishing from LI the last decade the number of Colorado Potato beetle have diminished. Since I moved to KY 10 years ago I have not seen one of these pests since. We once spent 8 hours plucking beetles off 300 or so eggplant plants. I know it not the most lucrative way to remove the pests, but it saved our crop more than once.

bencjedi - goodness, how devastasting to have your entire crop in danger from those pesky beetles!

our five acres was once used for tobacco farming, so I wonder if that is why they are in the soil/area?

so neem oil isn't an effective killer? heck. I answered that myself up above. guess I'll start plucking tonight when it cools off.

If you just have a few potatoes and not many bugs I'd manually remove the offenders. If you have several rows and more larvae then I'd spray or dust with Sevin.

The beetles are there because you have food for them to eat. I don't recall ever seeing potato beetles on tobacco unless they just stopped to rest....

Janet