CANFIELD – Sweet potato vine has been a popular container “spiller” for many years, and I have used it often. However, several years ago I discovered a variety called “Solar Tower” that climbs rather than spills. I use it, combined with ‘black-eyed Susan vine, in a container situated between our garage doors. By the end of summer, the vines have grown up a trellis and along twine stretched across the top of both doors. I think it looks beautiful — not so much my tall husband.

Sweet potato vine is a fast-growing, hardy annual that requires very little other than support, water and fertilizer. It seemed to be pest-free… until I noticed random holes through many of the leaves. Doing some online research to see what might be feasting on my vine, I learned about tortoise beetles.

As the name suggests, tortoise beetles resemble tiny turtles. Since it is not a serious pest and the damage to plants is only cosmetic, not much is known about them. In addition to sweet potatoes, they also feed on tomatoes, beans, peppers and morning glories.

Measuring only 5 mm to 7 mm in length, they may be difficult to find. However, it is the metallic gold color that grabbed my attention and also earns them the nickname “gold bug.” They have a transparent covering due to the expanded edge of the prothorax and forewing.

Beetles first appear in spring and deposit flat, white, oval eggs on the underside of leaves or on stems. In five to 10 days, they hatch.

The hatching spined larvae are yellow to reddish brown and have an interesting, though disgusting, protection adaptation.

As they grow through three larval instars, they carry cast skins and fecal matter on spines attached to the posterior end of the body. The spines, called an anal fork, move and hold the waste as a shield over the body to deter predators. In 14 to 21 days, they pupate.

Pupae are also spined and inherit the same debris carried by the larvae. In seven to 14 days, adult beetles emerge. July is the time to look for them.

The innocent tortoise beetle can fall prey to several parasitoids of the fly and wasp variety. That means the insect injects its eggs into the beetle larvae where they feed and grow, killing the larvae when they emerge.

Larvae can also fall victim to ladybeetles, damsel bugs, assassin bugs and shield bugs. The protective “mess” they carry doesn’t offer much protection against those larger insects with piercing-sucking mouthparts.

On first seeing the golden tortoise beetle, I immediately thought of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Gold-Bug,” a story about a cryptic message on a sheet of parchment wrapped around a gold scarab beetle that led to treasure. In July, look closely under the leaves of your sweet potato vine for your gold bug treasure.

For photos and more information, go to: https://go.osu.edu/tortoisebeetle

Merabeth Steffen is an Ohio State University Extension Master Gardener Volunteer in Mahoning County.