Q: Earlier this year, I asked for advice on growing potatoes, as it was a new crop for me. I wanted to avoid nasty bugs without using chemicals, so that’s why I grew them in bags and covered them with insect netting. Both the bags and the netting worked fine. Each bag produced about five nice-sized, large potatoes. — Nancy L.

A: Thanks for sharing your success! In looking at the photo of the russet potatoes, you’ve made us all hungry for a baked potato.

Colorado potato beetle has plagued potato crops in the United States for over a century. I remember my dad saying that one of his chores as a boy was to check their potato plants for the insect and drop them in a can of kerosene.

As insecticides for the control of the Colorado potato beetle became prevalent, the beetles developed resis

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