In an endless war with the Colorado potato beetle, people forget that other potato pests do not sleep and can cause enormous harm to garden crops. Some of them require special methods of fighting, the timely use of special pesticides. It is advisable to study in advance the varieties of these insects and the existing methods for their destruction.
Potato pests and control
Insects attack potato beds every year, the average loss of root crops in the world is from 6.5%, and in the contaminated area people generally do not have a crop at all. In addition to the gluttonous Colorado beetle, there are wireworms, nematodes, caterpillars and larvae that require attention of vegetable growers. To solve the problem, how to deal with potato pests, without a comprehensive approach and preventive measures at the stage of planting tubers you can not do.
Colorado potato beetle
To notice this pest of potatoes on the beds is simple, adult individuals up to 12 mm in size have a yellow-black striped back, and their larvae from the second age are painted in a noticeable red color. Processing potatoes from the Colorado beetle can not completely destroy the insects that produce during the rotation of their hordes. Part of the pests hides temporarily in the ground, avoiding pesticides, and then climbs up, assuming again to eat the tops. The situation is aggravated by the terrible vitality of the beetles, who learned to quickly adapt to any pesticides.
Effective chemical agents against the Colorado potato beetle:
- Aktara ,
- Tanrek,
- Lightning,
- Apaches,
- Taboo,
- Prestige,
- Corado,
- Colorado,
- Commander,
- Sonnet.
Biopreparations against the beetle:
- Batsikol,
- Fitoverm,
- Agravertin,
- Bithoxybacillin,
- Aktofit.
Folk remedies against the beetle:
- Expelling the tops with ashes, cement or gypsum.
- Spraying bushes with decoctions and infusions. With varying success, the leaves are used for walnut, celandine, sunflower, dandelion, wormwood, tomato leaves, gorchak.
- Cultivation in the aisles of plants-repellents - marigolds, cucumber grass, hemp, nasturtium, coriander, marigold, matthiol.
Pest of potato pterel
The following pests of potatoes against the background of Colorado beetles are less noticeable, even many villagers initially pay little attention to the inconspicuous insect with the red head. In the adult stage, the pancreas reaches a length of 15-20 mm, the body is oblong and narrow, the color of the trunk is black, a light longitudinal strip is visible on the elytra. The pest has a defense system against the enemies, throwing out a poison at risk, capable of poisoning even a large animal, so you can not press a pencil with bare hands.
The larvae of the phalanx are harmless, and adult individuals can seriously reduce yields on the beds. These inconspicuous beetles - pests of potatoes and other useful crops, eating beets, cereals, soybeans, alfalfa, melons and melons. To successfully combat the pint, we need to eradicate the weeds in the gardens, apply autumn plowing, use the Match, Karate and other available insecticides.
Stem nematode of potato
Adult nematodes - tiny worms up to 1 mm long, which live in tubers and ground. In cellars and warehouses, these pests of potatoes are able to move and infect healthy material during storage. Damaged crops are more susceptible to rot, fungal and bacterial infections. In summer, in addition to the tubers, the leaves and stems suffer from the nematode, the early varieties are most affected by insects.
Is it possible to eradicate the potato stem nematode, how to deal with a dangerous pest? Now a lot of nematode-resistant varieties that can be cultivated on one site for several seasons in a row - Desnitsa, Sante, Freska, Aspia, Belorussky-3, Shurminsky-2, have been put up. Otherwise, it is desirable to alternate Solanaceae with other cultures. The introduction of organic substances into the earth promotes the multiplication of annelid worms, which destroy nematodes. You can apply Nemabakt and other bioinsecticides that can work in the soil.
Pest of potato wireworm
The wireworms are called larvae of the beetles, which are found everywhere. In the stage of the larva they are up to 5 years old and lead life in the form of inconspicuous yellow or light yellow worms up to 2.5 cm long. They have an unusually solid body, which is difficult to crush or rupture with fingers. In potatoes and other root crops, wireworms gnaw through winding tunnels, because of what the fruits rot and lose their attractive appearance.
Fighting Potato Wires:
- Weed removal.
- Plant the affected areas of legumes.
- Sow mustard, oilseed rape, buckwheat.
- Avoid thick planting.
- Try to reduce the acidity of the soil by introducing the required amount of chalk, ash, lime.
- Planting in the row-spacing marigolds.
- Carry out a deep digging of the earth in late autumn.
- Process tubers by chemical means - Prestige , Taboo and others.
- Spray the soil in the holes during planting with insecticides .
Pest of potato
Unusually and even somewhat frightening look pests of potatoes called a bear . They have a large dark brown body up to 15 cm in length, a hard shell, powerful jaws, formidable claws, long mustaches. These terrible creatures dwell in the soil, but wings have, using them for night flights. Larvae smaller in size and painted in gray, shaped like an adult.
The bear on the potato presents a danger to the plants, it digs the moves and destroys everything on the way. The insect harms cucumbers, salad, cabbage, beet, grain, almost all other garden crops. To destroy the clutches, the people used traps in the form of holes with manure, where the females crawl to equip the laying. You can fill the holes with a soap solution or water with kerosene (100 g of kerosene per 10 liters of water).
Chemicals against the bear:
- Medtotox,
- Thunder,
- Boverin,
- Grizzly,
- Bancol.
Potato moth
The greatest harm is brought not by brown-gray butterflies, but by their larvae of white or yellow to 1.5 cm in length. They are planted in soil or potato storage, hiding in the cracks of walls, floors or grilles. Insects gnaw through the tubers and leave inside their excrement. Caterpillars in the summer can damage the leaves, penetrate the stems, and then descend into the soil and pupate near the fruit.
Means for potato moth:
- deep planting of tubers,
- cover the planting material with ground more than 5 cm when hilling,
- cull infected tubers,
- spray the tops when the butterfly appears insecticide,
- To process walls and a floor in vegetable storages Karbofosom or by other means,
- disinfect the planting material with pesticides or biological insecticides.
Aphids on potatoes
Several species of aphids can live on solanaceous plants: peach, crush, crush, ordinary and large potato. These tiny insects terribly multiply rapidly, breeding up to 20 generations of offspring in a favorable season. They not only suck the juices from the plants, settling on the reverse side of the leaf, but also carry the disease along with the saliva. The first thing that an inexperienced vegetable grower wants to know when he sees aphids on potatoes is how to get rid of a dangerous pest. There are several ways to deal with tiny newcomers.
Preparations against aphids:
- Bi-58 New,
- Danadim,
- Pirimor,
- Ziperkil.
Potato scoop - signs
Nightsome cultures attack several species of scoops - winter, common and potato. It damages bulbous crops, strawberries, corn, raspberries and other vegetable plants. If you know what a potato moth looks like, you can easily distinguish it from a scoop. The butterfly looks unattractive, the color of the wings is dirty yellow, gray-brown or pinkish-yellow. In the span of wings the moth reaches 45 mm. The first caterpillar shovel lays off from April until the end of spring.
Caterpillars of the scoop are large, up to 45 mm long, light yellow or fleshy red, with a reddish strip on the body. They damage the stems, which leads to an instant withering of the bushes. Next, the caterpillar settles in the tubers, making in the fruits of the chamber, where it lives, feeds and lays excrement. The wreck hibernates till the spring in the soil. To treat potatoes against scoops, there are the following tools:
- Fufanon,
- Actellik ,
- Inta-C-M,
- liming of soil (application of lime or dolomite flour to 0.8 g / m²).