Potato pests and control

Pests annually cause serious damage to both dacha plantations of potatoes, and fields of farms. As a result of such damage, not only the above-ground parts of plants and their roots suffer, but also the yield is sharply reduced. Hibernating in the soil, tubers and plant residues, adult insects and larvae become a kind of delayed threat to the gardener. To ensure that the crops are consistently high and of high quality, a system of measures is needed to combat the pests of potato leaves and tubers on the territory. Read our next article: Potato diseases - photos, description and treatment!

Colorado beetles

Yellow-brown beetles, having a length of about a centimeter and allocated with longitudinal strips on chitin, are well known to potato growers and pose the main danger in many regions of the country. Adult individuals, especially larvae, can completely destroy casting and young stems. If at the appearance of this pest of potatoes, the fight against it is not conducted, the yield may drop by half.

The greatest harm is caused by insects during the formation of tubers, when buds and flowers appear on the bushes. Knowing about the existence of effective chemical preparations, such as the Taboo for processing potatoes, many summer residents still do not abandon the traditional methods of combating the Colorado beetle and wireworm. Among these measures:

• destruction of eggs of insects, collection of larvae and adults;
• irrigation of sprouts and grown bushes with plant infusions on the basis of celandine, tansy, basil, currant;
• joint planting with crops that discourage the beetle, such as legumes or coriander.

Effective protection against pests will be a three-fold treatment of plantings by the Commander, Iskra, Mospilan, Aktara or other drugs.

The main thing is that 20 days before the harvest, chemicals are not used.

Biological remedies, for example, Boverin, Fitoverm and Agverotin, show their effect for 5-7 days and are especially effective against the main pests of potato leaves, larvae.

Wireworms - pests and control of potatoes

Tough, up to 3 cm long, the yellow larvae of the click beetles feed on succulent underground shoots, roots and tubers. Especially fond of wheatgrass, therefore, when these pests of potatoes are found, they must be combated with the removal of this weed. The tubers struck by the wireworm are stained with courses, often affected by rot, nematodes and potato diseases.

To protect the crop from a dangerous pest, you can use:

• introduction of ammonia-containing fertilizers;
• liming of soils to reduce its acidity;
• plantings of bait plants;
• frequent loosening of the soil and the destruction of weeds
• presowing treatment with insecticides or using chemicals, for example, a Potato taboo during planting.

Insecticidal etching of planting material and treatment with Taboo Tabs helps protect plants for 45 days.

In addition, the preparation is active against the Colorado beetle, aphids and cicadas. In this case, the protective properties are preserved for up to 35 days.

Leaflets

Externally similar to aphids or fleas, these pests of potato leaves are fed by plant juices and this causes serious damage to plantings:

• At the puncture site, spots are formed first, and then the tissues of the damaged parts of the bush are completely dying out.
• Damaged areas become a pathway for the penetration of bacterial flora, spores of mold fungi and sources of other infections.
• The insects themselves endure dangerous for nightshade disease, including the column.

To protect the shoots from the leafhoppers, it will be useful to use Insecticides Cruiser and Taboo to process the potato even before it enters the soil. And with the help of Karate Zeon, you can destroy the squatter around the planting of potatoes.

Potato flea is the pest of the tops

Different types of fleas are common all over the world. Adult beetles, up to 3 mm in length, belong to the pests of potato leaves. A thin, with three pairs of legs, larvae that develop on the roots, in years that are favorable for insects, can cause loss of healthy bushes and most of the crop. The defeat is facilitated by the late planting of tubers and dry, hot weather.

You can see the traces of the stay of potato fleas by the characteristic holes and pits on the surface of the leaves.

In addition to Taboo, as a means of protecting and combating the pest of potatoes, phosphamide with a concentration of% can be used every 10 days. Adult specimens are caught on glue baits-traps. And in small summer plantations effectively spraying with infusion of chamomile or tobacco dust in a mixture with wood ash.

Potato nematodes: signs of defeat and control measures

Consider microscopic roundworms first hand is almost impossible. But the traces of the presence of a golden potato nematode on the photo and the unaided eye are clearly visible. These are the seeds of a pest, similar to millet grains, covering the roots of the infected plant. In this form, the pest winters and can remain viable for at least 10 years. Affected nematodes bush externally depressed, lagging behind in growth. A characteristic sign of infection of the soil with nematodes is the yellowing of the lower leaves on the potato bushes. If you tear such a plant, you can see the pear roots with small tubers. And sometimes potatoes are not formed at all.

If the plantations are affected by the stem potato nematode, the signs of its presence on the tubers look like pitted gray spots that eventually grow and crack. The tissue under the affected skin acquires a brown, loose appearance, and on the border with a healthy flesh the pests of the pests are found.

A root-knot nematode parasitizing the underground part of potato bushes, including tubers, damages the plants, and this eventually leads to their death. In the places of penetration of worms and on the areas of their vital activity, galls appear - thickenings up to, mm in diameter. These growths, left on the roots and tubers by the pest of potatoes, can be seen from the photo as they gradually grow, merge and lead to deformation of tubers and plant organs. And in the damaged tissue bacteria and fungi easily settle.

In the soil, nematodes are easily transported with planting material and soil. The source of infection can become garden tools, shoes and even water. Therefore, tubers before planting are recommended to be washed with a brush under the stream of water, and the bushes affected by the pest after digging are carefully transferred from the ridges and burned. If there are gallic, cauline or golden nematodes in the soil, the distribution area of ​​pests is clearly visible in the photo of the site.

To avoid damage to the tubers by worms, planting is carried out as early as possible, and preference is given to the rarest varieties, the ripening of which is less than 60 days - the cycle of nematode development.

The protection from the pest of a potato and its control, in the case of nematodes, consists of:

• in the use of resistant varieties;
• in the observance of the rules of crop rotation, which consist in changing crops no less than 3-4 years;
• in crops in the field of potato growth of legumes, corn and perennial grasses, cleansing the soil of worms.
• in the use of chemical agents for soil treatment, for example, thiazon, carbomide, carbathion or heterophos.

Potato scoop

Harmless looking moths of brown or gray color are serious pests of potatoes, and the fight against them, or rather with their caterpillars, should be conducted only in a complex manner. These insects are unpretentious and are found everywhere, but are especially well established in shaded corners with high humidity. Eggs scoop, often hibernating on the grass, in the spring turn into larvae and go to potatoes and other nightshade.

It is clearly seen how the pest of potatoes in the photo, gnawing the stem over the root collar, gets inside, and then is introduced into the nearby tubers and bushes, damaging many plants.

Fight with potato scoops can:

• by removing weeds-cereals;
• with the help of traps on pheromones;
• affecting pests with insecticides.

Potato moth

This insect, which resembles a photo with a potato scoop, develops not only in the summer months. It is also active in storage conditions at temperatures above 10 ° C. For a warm season the potato moth can produce up to eight generations, and if the adults do not seriously harm the crop, the caterpillars damage both the tubers and the green part of the bush.

In places where signs of a potato pest are found, it is necessary:

• take care of storing potatoes at a temperature not exceeding 5 ° C;
• apply only healthy planting material;
• to plant hot tubers as soon as possible;
• Highly sprouting seedlings;
• carry out a deep digging in the spring and autumn;
• to fight with the self-sowing of wild nightshade;
• Highly bushes,
• before digging up the tubers to cut and destroy the tops.

Prevents the development of pests treatment of dug out tubers lepidocid. From potato moths in the beds will help the treatment of chemicals similar to those used in the fight against the Colorado potato beetle and other pests of potato. Processing from potato moths and scoops can be repeated at the end of August. This will not allow caterpillars to descend to the roots.

If the aim of the gardener is a high yield of quality tubers, the prevention of the propagation of pests of the potato and the fight against them should be mandatory integrated measures on the site.

And here we can not do without systematic monitoring of the condition of plants, and also without creating favorable conditions for the growth of potatoes on the plantation.

Potato pests and control - video