"My potato bug blower was made from a snowblower and an old furnace fan. It couldn't be simpler or more effective," says Eric Campbell, Shawville, Quebec.

He removed the auger from a 10 hp snowblower and bolted a common furnace fan on in its place. The 13-in. fan is held in place by a metal frame that's supported by a single caster wheel off a wheelbarrow. A screened wooden cage which rides on a small metal wheel, is suspended by a steel arm that extends over to the other side of the row of plants. The cage captures bugs as they're blown off plants by the fan. Once a metal trough at the bottom of the cage fills up with bugs, he disposes of them.

"I've worked on the idea for six years and have nothing but good things to say about it," says Campbell. "I think anyone who tries this idea will have potatoes they'll be proud of. I'm not using any poison and there's no toxic runoff. To me, it's the only way to grow potatoes."

He guides the blaster between two rows, with the screened cage located on the opposite side of the row just brushing the leaves.

The cage measures 22 in. sq. and 5 in. deep. It has two screens -- a 1/2-in. sq. screen on the near side and a very fine mesh screen on the far side. Bugs get blown through the 1/2-in. sq. screen and are caught on the mesh screen, dropping down into the metal trough at the bottom of the cage. A 2-in. high lip on the near side of the trough curls inward to trap them. "The combination of the curved lip and the air blasting over it keeps the bugs from climbing out," says Campbell.

The fan is belt-driven off a pulley mounted on the snowblower engine. Air is directed slightly upward from the fan by a 3-sided tin shroud bolted to one side. Fan height can be adjusted by pulling a pin on front of the frame.

The screened cage is attached to a length of 2-in. sq. tubing that slides onto the extension arm. By pulling a T-bar pin, the cage moves in or out from the row.

"I've spent a lot of time working on it but it was worth it," says Campbell. "I can remove 99 percent of the bugs with this machine. As the plants get taller, I tip the blower upward a little to blast air straight into the plants and through all the leaves. I end up with bugs 1 1/2 in. deep the full length of the cage. In average conditions I'll fill the box twice on my 1 1/2 acres of potatoes. To dispose of the bugs, I dump them into a container and then burn them."

"I use my potato bug blaster every other day for the first 10 days, until there are only a few bugs left, and then use it every four or five days, and finally every seven or eight days. It takes a lot of air to blow bugs off plant leaves, so I keep the fan going as fast as the snowblower's 10 hp motor will drive it. The snowblower has five forward speeds and two reverse. I find that third gear works best, because at that speed the blast of air moves the plants just enough to expose all the bugs," says Campbell. "The snowblower wheels have chains on them which tear up the ground a bit, but that's good because then I can tell which rows I've already covered."

Campbell says in the past he used bug poison, but didn't like it. "In my opinion, insecticides are a big waste of money and time because they don't kill anything. I was paying lots for less than a quart of insecticide, and at the end of the season I wound up with no potatoes and no bugs killed, either."

The snowblower doesn't always run perfectly level but instead tends to swing sideways at times. To compensate for that, the cross arm that supports the cage is free to pivot up or down on the main frame, allowing the cage to follow the ground contour.

The fan blows air right through the cage, but it isn't strong enough to affect plants in the row behind the cage. Campbell also developed a tractor-mounted model he uses on his 1950 Massey Harris 30 equipped with a side belt pulley, which drives the blower.

"The tractor-mounted model works excellent, too. But I like the snowblower model better because it doesn't compact the soil as much," says Campbell. "The tractor-mounted model has a bigger 18-in. dia. fan. To keep it from blowing bugs off the row behind the cage, I had to mount a deflector on the opposite side of the cage."

He says he didn't modify the snowblower at all, so at the end of the season the whole assembly can be disassembled by removing four bolts. "Then I'm ready to blow snow again," notes Campbell.