Potato pests and control 

It is not for nothing that potatoes are called the second “bread”, because this root crop has firmly established itself on the tables and in the gardens of s. Probably, there is no such cottage or suburban area where at least a few potato bushes, or even a whole potato field, would not be planted. Growing potatoes is not difficult: the culture is unpretentious and stable, gives good yields, the problem lies in pests – too many insects love to eat potatoes and their juicy shoots.

Potato pests and the fight against them take up a good half of all the time that the summer resident devotes to the beds. You can see potato pests with photos and descriptions, as well as learn about the possible treatment of bushes from this article.

The main pests of potatoes

So, the main goal of a modern gardener is to protect potatoes from pests and dangerous diseases. All protection measures can be divided into preventive (or preventive) and real. Of course, it is easier to deal with any problem at the initial stage, and even more effective is to prevent it.

In fact, there are so many potato pests that it is almost impossible to predict the appearance of one or another insect. Most of them are carried along with planting tubers, soil, garden tools and even water, some beetles fly in whole flocks along with air currents (downwind), other pests live in the ground for years, for the time being, without revealing their presence.

You need to know the “enemy” by sight, so below will be a photo and description of potato pests that pose the most serious danger, as well as effective measures to combat these insects.

Colorado beetle

Probably, there is no such person who would not know what the notorious “colorado” looks like. This is a small rounded beetle, the body length of which can reach 1,5 cm, and its chitinous strong shell is colored in longitudinal yellow-brown stripes.

Interesting! The shade of the stripes of the Colorado potato beetle and the intensity of the color of its larvae depend on the amount of carotene, because only this element is not absorbed by the pest’s body and accumulates in its tissues. The more the insect ate potato leaves, the “orange” its color.

The Colorado potato beetle is the most dangerous pest, because because of its “activity” you can easily lose most of the crop. Although the “colorado” rarely eats potato tubers and practically does not damage them, it manages to destroy the entire green mass of potato bushes very “on time”. As a rule, the period of activity of the pest and its larvae coincides with the time of flowering of potatoes and the setting of tubers – potatoes simply do not form under damaged bushes, as photosynthesis is disturbed and the plant dies.

The greatest danger to green shoots of potatoes is larvae, and not adults of the pest. Females and males of the Colorado potato beetle can safely winter in the ground at a depth of about 30 cm, falling into a kind of sleep. In spring, pests crawl to the surface, lay their eggs on the wrong side of young potato leaves.

After 10 days, larvae appear from the eggs, which intensively eat foliage and young potato stalks for about three weeks, then crawl underground and pupate – this is how an adult is born. For another 20 days, the young pest gains “fat” and eats potato tops with pleasure, after which it lays eggs and spreads new individuals of its family.

Colorado beetles are dangerous for potato plantations for several reasons:

• the great voracity of these pests – potato bushes simply “disappear” in a matter of hours;
• the survivability of Colorado potato beetles is truly amazing: they endure frosts, can live up to three years (despite the fact that the life cycle of an ordinary individual is 12 months), are able to fall into suspended animation and wait in the ground for a convenient moment to wake up;
• pests fly downwind over vast distances (several tens of kilometers), so they can suddenly appear where they have never been (by the way, this is how “colorados” spread throughout the world);
• pests very quickly get used to insecticidal preparations, they can be dealt with only by systemic means.

In addition to potatoes, Colorado potato beetles love other cultures of the nightshade family, so they often appear on tomatoes, eggplants, and physalis.

It is difficult to fight the pest, one processing of potatoes is not enough here. At least three times during the season, the gardener will have to use special preparations or regularly collect pests by hand, while destroying their eggs on potato bushes.

Today there are many toxic drugs against the Colorado potato beetle (Komador, Iskra, Aktara and others), pre-planting treatment of potato tubers with insecticides is also effective. But it is necessary to remember about the danger to human health and refuse processing at least 20 days before harvesting potatoes.

Of the folk remedies for combating such a pest as the Colorado potato beetle, one can name:

• manual collection of insects;
• irrigation of potato bushes with infusions of tansy, currant, celandine or basil;
• planting green manure that cleans the soil (for example, mustard);
• compliance with crop rotation (at least four years you should not plant potatoes and other nightshades in the same place);
• alternating potato bushes with crops that repel pests (coriander or legumes, for example).

wireworm

Another inveterate potato pest is a small worm, about 2-2,5 cm long, painted red or yellow. This is the larva of the click beetle, popularly called the “wireworm”. The worm was so named because of the rigid body, similar to a metal wire.

Click beetles themselves do not eat potatoes, so they are not considered pests. In nature, these insects live in thickets of couch grass and feed on tender young roots of this weed.

Hence the main preventive measure to combat the wireworm pest is timely and regular weeding in order to prevent the beds from being overgrown with wheatgrass and other weeds.

You can find out about the defeat of potatoes by a wireworm pest by examining the tubers: numerous passages of small diameter will tell about the vital activity of the larvae. The passages in potatoes themselves are not so dangerous as the fact that they are often “gates” for infections and nematodes. As a result, potato tubers rot and become unfit for human consumption.

The appearance of the bushes affected by the pest is also characteristic: the stems mottled with moves wither, become unviable, as a result, the potato bush lags behind in development and dies.

To protect potatoes from such a pest as a wireworm, it is necessary to take comprehensive measures:

1. Fertilize the soil under potatoes with ammonia preparations.
2. Reduce the acidity of the soil by spreading quicklime over its surface.
3. Plant plants along with potatoes that attract wireworms.
4. Pull out weeds along with the root, often weed and loosen the soil between potato beds.
5. Treat potato tubers before planting using insecticidal preparations (such as “Taboo”).

Cicadas

In appearance and type of potato damage, leafhoppers resemble aphids or potato fleas. These are small pests, which nevertheless can cause significant damage to the potato crop, because they feed on cell sap, damage the leaves, which leads to wilting and drying out of the bushes.

The activity of cicadas is manifested in such factors:

• in places of punctures, brown spots appear on the leaves of the potato, which merge, and the leaf dies;
• leaves bitten by pests become infected with fungal spores, infections and small parasites easily penetrate into them;
• pests themselves can additionally infect potatoes with dangerous infections, because they are carriers of many diseases (for example, stolbur).

Pest control measures are purely preventive – treatment of tubers before planting using insecticidal preparations such as Taboo or Cruiser. If the cicadas appeared on the site for the first time, you can try to irrigate the potato row spacing with Karate Zeon.

potato flea

The most dangerous pest of potato tops is a small brown flea. There are many types of such pests, they are distributed throughout the world.

For potato leaves, it is the adults of the flea that are dangerous, reaching three millimeters in length. But the larvae of this pest – thin and oblong bodies with three pairs of short legs – can infect the root system of potato bushes, which will lead to the plant withering and crop loss.

It is possible to understand that a potato is infected with a flea by the grooves in the leaves characteristic of this pest, which eventually turn brown and dry out.

An effective pest control agent is the Taboo insecticide, and the treatment of bushes with phosphamide at a concentration of 0,2% also helps well (you need to process the potatoes every 10 days until the tubers are tied).

Adult beetles can be caught with glue baits. If the garden is small, spraying potato bushes with chamomile infusion or dusting with a mixture of tobacco dust and wood ash helps well.

Potato nematodes

One of the microorganisms harmful to potatoes is the nematode. These are microscopic worms that cannot be seen with the naked eye. But their presence is very clearly visible in the state of potato bushes: they are oppressed, lag behind in development, do not form at all or form very small tubers.

The females of the nematode are round, and the males are oblong, but you can only see the frozen eggs of these pests – cysts. It is no coincidence that pests “freeze” their eggs: this is done so that the offspring can survive the winter, and also wait for the harvest year.

In the form of cysts, the nematode can stay in the ground for up to ten years, after which it wakes up and develops as usual. Externally, pest eggs are similar to millet grains, usually they are stuck around the roots and tubers of potatoes.

Potatoes are affected by three types of nematodes:

1. The stem nematode manifests its presence by shiny gray spots that appear on potato tubers. Under the gray film, you can see the pulp destroyed by the pest, turned into dust. Under a microscope, you can also see the pests themselves – nematodes accumulate on the border of the affected area and healthy pulp. The stem nematode penetrates into potato tubers along the stems, damaging them along the way.
2. Gall nematode parasitizes exclusively on the roots and tubers of potatoes. In those places where pests accumulate, small seals appear – galls, the diameter of which is about 1,5 mm. These lumps grow, merge, and eventually deform the roots and tubers of the potato. In addition, infections and fungal spores settle in the wounds.
3. golden nematodes, like their counterparts, very tenacious and very dangerous. Pests are transferred to potatoes along with soil, water, tubers can be infected with garden tools.

You can fight the pest with insecticides, such as “Thiazone” or “Carbomide”. It is very important to observe crop rotation when planting potato sites with corn, beans or perennial grasses.

potato scoop

It is not the brown moths themselves that are dangerous for potatoes, but their larvae are light caterpillars. Pests overwinter on wheatgrass, love shade and high humidity, but, in principle, scoops are unpretentious and can live anywhere.

The cutworm larva gnaws its way to the potato tubers through the neck of the stem, thereby leading to the death of the entire bush and damaging the crop. In addition to insecticidal preparations, the pest can be fought by removing weeds, placing pheromone traps between rows.

Potato moth

Outwardly, this pest is similar to a scoop, but differs in that it is not active seasonally, but during the entire time until the temperature drops below +10 degrees.

The potato moth is dangerous primarily for its fertility – up to eight generations of this pest manage to appear in one summer season. Adults do not harm potato bushes, but the larvae damage both the aerial part and tubers.

You can protect the site from moths in the following ways:

• store potatoes at a temperature of 5 degrees;
• plant well-warmed tubers;
• hill bushes high;
• dig deep into the ground in spring and autumn.

Conclusions

How to deal with potato pests, in principle, is clear – you need to use special insecticides. But the gardener must understand that such substances are toxic not only for insects, but humans can also suffer from them.

In order for the harvest to be safe and as useful as possible, it is better to carry out preventive measures, such as crop rotation, disinfection, and planting green manure. If the pest attacked suddenly, you can try folk remedies or biological protection. Toxic substances should be the last resort, which is used after all unsuccessful attempts to save potatoes.