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It is not for nothing that potatoes are called the second "bread", because this root vegetable has firmly established itself on the tables and in the gardens of Russians. Probably, there is no such dacha or suburban area on which at least a few potato bushes, or even a whole potato field, were not planted. It is not difficult to grow potatoes: the culture is unpretentious and stable, gives good yields, the problem lies in pests - too many insects like 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 the pests of potatoes 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 the most 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 it is even more effective to prevent it.
In fact, there are so many pests of potatoes that it is almost impossible to predict the appearance of this or that insect. Most of them are transferred along with planting tubers, soil, gardening tools and even with water, some beetles fly in whole flocks along with air currents (downwind), other pests live for years in the ground, for the time being, without detecting their presence in any way.
You need to know the "enemy" by sight, therefore, below will be presented a photo and description of potato pests that pose the most serious danger, as well as proposed effective measures to combat these insects.
Colorado beetle
Probably, there is no such person who would not know what the notorious "Colorado" looks like. It is a small rounded bug, the body length of which can reach 1.5 cm, and its strong chitinous shell is painted in longitudinal stripes of yellow-brown color.
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 has eaten potato leaves, the more "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 Colorado rarely eats potato tubers and practically does not damage them, he very “in time” manages to destroy all the green mass of potato bushes. As a rule, the period of activity of the pest and its larvae coincides with the time of flowering of potatoes and tying of tubers - potatoes simply do not form under damaged bushes, since photosynthesis is disturbed and the plant dies.
The greatest danger to green shoots of potatoes is represented by larvae, and not by 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 the spring, pests creep out to the surface, lay eggs on the seamy side of young potato leaves.
After 10 days, larvae appear from the eggs, which for about three weeks intensively eat the foliage and young potato stalks, 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 is engaged in laying eggs and spreading new individuals of its family.
Colorado beetles are dangerous for potato plantations for several reasons:
- great gluttony of these pests - potato bushes simply "disappear" in a matter of hours;
- the vitality of the Colorado 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 awaken;
- pests fly in the wind over huge distances (several tens of kilometers), so they can suddenly appear where they have never been (by the way, this is how the “Colorades” spread all over the world);
- pests very quickly get used to insecticidal drugs, they can only be dealt with by systemic means.
In addition to potatoes, Colorado beetles love other crops of the nightshade family, therefore they often appear on tomatoes, eggplants, and physalis.
It is difficult to fight the pest; potato processing alone is not enough. At least three times a season, the gardener will have to use special preparations or regularly collect pests by hand, while simultaneously destroying their eggs on potato bushes.
There are many toxic drugs against the Colorado potato beetle today (Komador, Iskra, Aktara and others), and the pre-planting treatment of potato tubers with insecticides is also effective. But it is necessary to remember about the harm to human health and refuse to process 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 manures that cleanse 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);
- alternation of potato bushes with crops that repel pests (coriander or legumes, for example).
Wireworms
Another avid pest of potatoes is a small worm, about 2-2.5 cm long, colored red or yellow. This is the larva of the click beetle, popularly called the "wireworm". The worm was so named because of its rigid body, similar to a metal wire.
The click beetles themselves do not eat potatoes, so they are not considered pests. In nature, these insects live in thickets of wheatgrass and feed on the tender young roots of this weedy herbs.
Hence, the main preventive measure against the wireworm pest is timely and regular weeding in order to prevent overgrowing of the beds with wheatgrass and other weeds.
You can learn about the defeat of a potato by a wireworm pest by examining the tubers: numerous small-diameter passages will tell you about the life of the larvae. The moves in potatoes are not as 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 dotted 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 wireworm, it is necessary to take comprehensive measures:
- Fertilize the soil under the potatoes with ammonia preparations.
- Reduce the acidity of the soil by scattering quicklime over its surface.
- Plant wireworm-luring plants with potatoes.
- Pull up weeds along with the root, often weed and loosen the soil between the potato beds.
- Treat potato tubers before planting using insecticidal preparations (Tabu type).
Cicadas
In appearance and in the type of damage to potatoes, leafhoppers resemble aphids or a potato flea. These are small pests that, 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 leafhoppers is manifested in the following factors:
- in places of punctures on the leaves of potatoes, brown spots appear, which merge, and the leaf dies off;
- leaves bitten by pests become infected with fungal spores, infections and small parasites easily penetrate them;
- the 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 Tabu or Cruiser. If leafhoppers have appeared on the site for the first time, you can try to irrigate the rows of potatoes 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 common all over the world.
For the leaves of potatoes, it is the adult fleas that reach three millimeters in length that are dangerous. But the larvae of this pest - thin and oblong bodies with three pairs of short legs - are capable of infecting the root system of potato bushes, which will lead to wilting of the plant and loss of yield.
You can understand that the potato is infected with a flea by the grooves in the leaves characteristic of this pest, which eventually turn brown and dry.
An effective means of combating the pest is the Tabu insecticide; the treatment of the 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 set).
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 a lot.
Potato nematodes
One of the microorganisms harmful to potatoes is a nematode. These are microscopic worms that cannot be seen with the naked eye. But their presence is very clearly noticeable in the state of potato bushes: they are oppressed, lag behind in development, do not form at all or form very small tubers.
Females of nematodes are round, and males are oblong, but you can see only 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, as well as 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, the eggs of pests are similar to grains of millet, usually they are stuck around the roots and tubers of potatoes.
Three types of nematodes infect potatoes:
- Stem nematode shows its presence on shiny gray spots appearing on potato tubers. Under the gray film, you can see the pulp destroyed by the pest, turned into dust.Under the microscope, you can see the pests themselves - nematodes accumulate at the border of the affected area and healthy pulp. The stem nematode penetrates the potato tubers along the stems, damaging them along the way.
- 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. Additionally, infections and spores of fungi settle in the wounds.
- Golden nematodes, like their brethren, they are very tenacious and very dangerous. Pests are transferred to potatoes together with soil, water; you can infect tubers with garden tools.
You can fight the pest with insecticides, such as "Tiazona" or "Carbomide". It is very important to follow the crop rotation by planting corn, beans, or perennial grasses in potato spots.
Potato scoop
It is not the brown moths themselves that pose a danger to potatoes, but their larvae are light caterpillars. Pests hibernate on wheatgrass, they like shade and high humidity, but, in principle, scoops are unpretentious and can live in any place.
The larva of the scoop gnaws the 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 dealt with by removing weeds, placing traps with pheromones between rows.
Potato moth
Outwardly, this pest looks like a scoop, but differs in that it is not active seasonally, but throughout the entire time until the temperature drops below +10 degrees.
The potato moth is dangerous, first of all, for its fertility - in one summer season, up to eight generations of this pest have time to appear. Adults do not harm potato bushes, but the larvae damage both the aerial part and tubers.
You can protect the area from moths in the following ways:
- store potatoes at a temperature of 5 degrees;
- plant well-heated tubers;
- huddle bushes high;
- dig deep into the ground in spring and autumn.
findings
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, a person 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 maintaining crop rotation, disinfection, and planting green manures. If the pest attacked suddenly, you can try folk remedies or biological protection. Toxic substances should be the last resort used after all unsuccessful attempts to save potatoes.
