Common Potato Pests

Every experienced vegetable farmer knows firsthand that potato pests are a threat to the entire crop. Insects can spoil more than half of the collection, so you should know what threat the pests pose and how to get rid of them.

Content
  1. Adaptation of insects
  2. Basic methods for fighting
  3. Colorado potato beetle
  4. Fighting the Colorado potato beetle
  5. Shpanka Krasnogolovaya
  6. Fighting with a shpanka
  7. Wireworms
  8. Wireworm control methods
  9. Fleas
  10. Protection against fleas
  11. Nematodes
  12. Methods of protection against the nematode
  13. Maybug
  14. Protection against Maybugs
  15. Bear
  16. Methods of protection against the bear

Распространенные вредители картофеля

Common potato pests

Adaptation of insects

The durability and endurance of beetles can only be envied: they are not afraid of any weather conditions, and some species even tolerate temperature extremes. Such features allow harmful bugs to live and reproduce in any conditions.

Harmful insects have long adapted to many ways of dealing with them, even some chemical agents are no longer afraid of them. Beetles at the genetic level develop immunity to pesticides, so they protect their future generation from extinction.

Basic control methods

Pest control is not an easy task and requires a special approach. At a minimum, you will need to know several ways to protect your garden. Every year, breeders set goals before planting – to avoid diseases and overcome pests.

The protection of potatoes from a pest for preventive purposes cannot be fully done due to the fact that a huge number of potato pests are transferred they are in various ways. Beetles and worms can get into the ground with water and fertilizer, and can be found on planting tools. Moreover, some types of insects can live deep in the soil for years.

Colorado potato beetle

Colorado potato beetle is a potato pest that loves to eat fruits and bush leaves. The appearance of the beetle is memorable – it is black and orange stripes on the wings. Adult individuals and larvae of Colorado can spoil a fair amount of yield. Particularly dangerous is the invasion of beetles during the period of development and flowering of the bush.

In search of food, insects can travel tens of kilometers. They tolerate temperature extremes, can wait out frosts in the soil, burrowing into the ground to a depth of about 20 cm. Due to their fertility, they can transmit immunity against many pesticides to future generations.

Fight against the Colorado potato beetle

Everyone can use methods of potato pest control. Among the most revered among the people is manual assembly. Colorado beetles and their larvae are collected in jars of water, and then destroyed. Leaves with offspring are torn off from the bush and also eliminated.

To destroy the Colorado beetles that hid from the cold in the ground, you need to dig a garden in the fall. Then the bugs will be in the upper layer of the soil and freeze during the first frost.

Shpanka Krasnogolovaya

One of the most dangerous pests of potatoes is Shpanka Krasnogolovaya. The bug has an oblong body, black color, white stripes on the wings.

Insects are especially active during their full maturity from May to August. Parasites eat flowers and leaves of potato bushes. Propagate by larvae, which are laid in the ground at the beginning of June.

Fight against the bobbin

The anti-bobbin agent on a small landing area is manual beetle harvesting. Weeding the land will help to exterminate offspring that have been deposited in the soil. Loosening the soil will damage fragile eggs and larvae.

Processing with modern insecticides, which are absolutely harmless to humans, also helps. We carry out spraying in accordance with all the rules and observe safety measures.

Wireworms

Червяки портят клубни

Worms spoil tubers

Wireworms are worms that grow to a length of 3.5 cm, they are attracted to the roots of weeds, which they do not mind eating. But, if they meet potatoes on their way, they can ruin the crop.

Damaged vegetables are easily susceptible to decay and diseases such as the nematode.

Methods of controlling wireworms

Before embarking on the planting of tubers in the ground, they should be treated with special chemicals. Protection against worms is also timely fertilizer with calcium and constant weeding of the earth.

To overcome wireworms, first get rid of weeds in your field, because they attract worms. Also an excellent tool is fertilizer and the fight against high soil acidity. A solution of copper and lime will help you with this.

Fleas

These little potato eaters are able to destroy half of the harvest, even despite the small size of up to 4mm. Outwardly, you may not notice them; you should observe the condition of the leaves and stems of the bush. When fleas appear, the leaves are covered with black indented dots.

Parasites settle and multiply in the ground on the roots and tubers of the bush. The spread and breeding of insects is facilitated by hot, dry weather.

Protection against fleas

Processing potatoes with chemicals will help in the fight against fleas. Also, the leaves can be smeared with a sticky substance that will stick together the paws of bugs.

In your own garden, treatment with chamomile solution will help you or fertilize the soil with ash. This method is convenient and low cost in conditions of small sowing areas.

Nematodes

Разнообразные твари

Various creatures

Such insects are microscopic and cannot be seen without special devices. Traces of their effects are visible only on the roots of the vegetable crop, they are expressed as small yellowish grains.

The bush infected with nematodes lags behind in development. The leaves turn yellow and fall off, and the tubers may not be tied at all.

Methods of protection against the nematode

Nematodes adversely affect the harvest, so you should not fight them spare neither money nor strength. When choosing protection, you should choose methods that have been tested for years.

To avoid contamination of the earth and tubers, the vegetable seat should be changed every 4 years. Bean crops need to be planted in place of the potato, which neutralize the pest and clean the soil.

In the fight against the worm, planting varieties resistant to such insects will help. It is also required to treat the seeded soil with a solution of copper sulfate.

May beetle

One of the common inhabitants of our region is the May beetle. Adult individuals do no damage to the harvest.

But their larvae, which the female lays in the soil, begin to feed on the roots of the plant with their intensive growth, thereby rendering it unusable.

Protection against May beetles

In the case of the May beetle, the method of manually collecting adult individuals and destroying their offspring is also effective. For beetles, you can make special night traps. Near the lamp put a jar of water: the bugs will fly into the light and fall into a trap.

In order to avoid laying eggs in the ground, you can cover the topsoil with mulching material: sawdust, straw. Loosening or weeding the soil will also help. To scare away annoying bugs, use an infusion of onion husks or a weak solution of manganese.

Medvedka

A huge insect that feeds on tubers and roots of a potato crop. The size can reach 5 cm and above. It has a long body of brown color and a large head.

It can damage a third of the harvest, compared to the degree of damage the bear is compared with the larvae of May beetles. Damaged fruits begin to rot and become diseased, and the plant itself begins to wither and dry.

Methods of protection from the bear

  1. A solution of vinegar that irrigate the ground where the insect lives will help in the fight against the bear.
  2. You can also set traps, for this you will need to: dig a small hole and pour a fermented drink into it.
  3. There is another method with a pit, only use it in the fall. Manure is put in the pit, and then they drop it in. Bears will smell and remain in the pit, from where they will not be able to Get out, and soon just freeze at the first frost.
  4. To scare off the insect, you can use needles or onion scales. Such potato pests are very sensitive to these smells.

Whatever there are no pests and no matter what method of control you choose, it is very important to identify the disease in the plant in time and take measures to avoid the death of the potato bush or the fruit itself.

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Anna Evans

Author ✓ Farmer

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