Black bugs on potato tops. Fighting methods. The life cycle of a pest
Aphids are a family of sucking insects that feed on plant sap. About 4 thousand species of these insects are known. They live in all parts of the world. One of the most common species is the potato aphid. Despite the name, the insect feeds not only on potatoes, it also damages others. vegetable crops- tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkin.
potato aphid
Appearance of the pest
The potato aphid (Aulacorthum solani) belongs to the order Hemiptera. Representatives of this group are distinguished by incomplete transformation during reproduction. small insects 3-3.5 mm long live in large colonies that can cause significant damage to plants. Among them there are winged and wingless individuals. Winged aphids appear in the summer, such individuals are necessary to populate a new territory. They have varying degrees of pigmentation. There are individuals with a brown color of the head and tips of the antennae, in other insects the entire front of the body is dark. Various forms pests are present on potatoes at the same time.
Information. Together with potatoes, the pest was introduced into different countries and regions. In Russia, it is found everywhere up to the Arctic Circle.
Wingless females have an elongated body, the color is green with a glossy sheen. They ensure the reproduction of the species. The birth of offspring occurs through parthenogenesis. This method is much more efficient than sexual reproduction. Each female is able to give up to 15 generations. In favorable greenhouse conditions, the reproductive cycle continues throughout the year.
Information. Parthenogenesis is a form of reproduction that does not require fertilization of the female. The eggs develop on their own into an embryo.
Signs of damage to potato aphids
The oral apparatus of aphids is adapted for piercing tissues and sucking plant sap. As a result, damaged leaves dry, the crop lags behind in growth, and yields decrease. The beginning of the pest invasion goes unnoticed. They hide under the leaves, but as the colony grows, they move to the top of the shoots. Potato aphids not only cause deformation of leaves and flowers, but are carriers of viral diseases.
Attention. The main signs of the appearance of pests: spotting and twisting of leaves, the appearance of ants near plants.
After absorbing the nutrient juices, the insect leaves a sugary secretion. They are called pad or honeydew. This sweet life remains on the plants, attracting other insects and creating a favorable environment for the development of fungi. Ants are constant companions of aphids, their symbiosis contributes to the spread of diseases. Insects that protect aphids and feed on honeydew are also carriers of infections and viruses.
Interesting fact. At low temperatures up to +10 0, the life of a virgin female is 60 days. An increase in temperature accelerates the growth of the insect, but shortens the life cycle.
Potato aphids are especially dangerous in greenhouses. Winged individuals allow you to quickly create several lesions. Various crops are under threat - eggplants, tomatoes, cucumbers. The leaves of the plants turn yellow and are covered with honeydew. The fruits are deformed, may fall off. They lose their marketable appearance, become covered with insect scales and soot fungus that appears on sweet honeydew.
Aphid control methods
The full range of pest control measures can be divided into several into several ways:
biological methods
Aphids on potato tops have natural enemies. They cannot completely destroy the pest population, but control its numbers. The most famous aphid exterminator is the ladybug. The beetle actively destroys them from spring to late autumn. Another ally in the fight against aphids is the lacewing. The larvae of this insect eat up to 100 individuals per day. Hoverfly larvae also destroy pests.
Advice. To attract ladybug Umbrella plants, such as dill, should be planted on the site.
Chemicals
With a significant distribution potato aphid without the use of chemicals.
Exists a large assortment insecticides that can be sprayed on potato tops to kill small pests.
Aktara is a systemic drug that destroys insects, but is safe for humans. IN closed ground The toxic effect lasts up to two months. the active substance Aktara causes paralysis and death of a large number of pests. The drug is localized in the leaves and shoots - aphids feeding places. The death of insects occurs in a day.
Actellik is an organophosphate insecticide. It works when sucking pests enter the intestines. The product has fumigant properties and a long-lasting effect. The period of protective action is 1-2 weeks. The death of insects is observed after a few hours.
Confidor is a proven effective drug against aphids and other pests. The agent quickly dissolves in water, it is resistant to precipitation and watering. After spraying, it remains active for a month.
Folk recipes
Safe pest control offers folk recipes. Their ingredients are eco-friendly products. There are several effective tips:
- Treat the potato bushes with a soap solution (100 g per 10 liters of water). Alkaline environment is detrimental to aphids.
- Infusion onion peel- 200 g of the product pour 2 liters of boiling water and leave for 2-3 days. The husk can be replaced with garlic cloves.
- Tobacco infusion - the smell of the plant repels many pests. The concentrate is prepared from 500 g of tobacco per 1 liter of water. The composition is boiled for an hour. Before processing, dilute in 10 liters of water.
Preventive measures
Wingless virgins hide in greenhouse weeds for the winter. To get rid of the pest, it is recommended to follow a set of rules:
- isolate potato planting areas from places where aphids overwinter;
- timely destruction of weeds and utilization of potato tops in the fall;
- planting seeds in a greenhouse should be postponed to an earlier date;
- it is necessary to destroy not only aphids, but also ants that contribute to its spread.
Pests reproduce by parthenogenesis (without mating and fertilization). The female lays up to 100 eggs. Depending on the weather, 5-15 generations of aphids can develop per season. Some insects do not have wings, but in summer, in hot weather, winged individuals hatch from eggs. Eggs overwinter on plant debris, often females end up in storage along with tubers.
One aphid sucks out very little juice. But if a colony of pests settles on the tops - the leaves and flowers begin to deform, discolor, dry out, the plant's immunity weakens. Aphids leave sugary secretions on the surface of the leaves that attract other pests. In a sticky, sweet mass, spores of a soot fungus develop.
The peak of the invasion of aphids falls on the second half growing season. Ants feed on the "milk" of pests. They "graze" and protect aphids. The natural enemies of aphids are larvae and adults of ladybugs, larvae of hoverflies and lacewings.
Folk methods of dealing with aphids
For spraying small areas, you can prepare one of the infusions:
- Pour 1.2 kg of chopped potato tops with a bucket of water, insist for a day, add 40 g dissolved in a small amount of water before use laundry soap;
- Pour 400 g of tobacco into 2 liters of water, boil for 10 minutes, insist for a day, strain before use, add water to 10 liters and add 40 g of laundry soap;
- Pour 4 kg of tomato tops into 3 liters of water, boil for 10 minutes. After 5–6 hours, strain the broth, add water to 10 liters, add 40 g of laundry soap;
- pour half a bucket of marigolds with a bucket of water, leave for 2 days, add laundry soap;
- dissolve 2 tablespoons in a bucket of water ammonia and 40 g of laundry soap.
thrips
Not all thrips are herbivores. There is a predatory species whose representatives feed on spider mite eggs.
Thrips on potatoes hide under leaves and in flower calyxes. The life span of the female is 20–25 days, during which she manages to lay under the skin of the leaf (with inside) up to 100 eggs.
The optimum temperature for thrips is from +25 to +30 °C. They are considered the scourge of greenhouses, where they manage to give 6–8 generations per season. IN open field 1-2 generations are born per season. Pests overwinter in the soil, at a depth of 6–8 cm.
Signs of damage to the tops of thrips: yellow spots with clearly defined boundaries, emerging long before the end of the growing season. Over time, the spots acquire a silver tint, black dots appear on them.
Folk remedy for thrips
Thrips cannot stand the smell of garlic. It is necessary to pour 150–200 g of garlic arrows or cloves (old ones) into 1 liter of water, insist for 5 days and strain. For spraying, 60 ml of garlic infusion and 40 g of laundry soap are dissolved in a bucket of water.
leafhoppers
About 1300 species of cicadas live on the territory of Russia. Insects love warmth, so most of them are in the southern regions. Vegetable gardens in Krasnodar and Stavropol are more likely to suffer from white leafhoppers. Closer to the Center there are bindweed and green leafhoppers. Depending on the species, insects can be colored yellow-green, turquoise, White color. Pests are as small as aphids, but differ from them in well-developed hind legs adapted for jumping. Thanks to their wings, leafhoppers fly very quickly between bushes 3–5 m apart from each other.
Pest larvae hatch from eggs in May, adults appear in July-August, they lay eggs (in the root zone of weeds) from late August to early November. Cicadas live in anthills, they go out to "fish" at night, under the protection of ants. Pests are polyphages. They fly to potato tops from weeds (bindweed, manna), therefore, unweeded areas are at risk.
The insect drinks not so much juice. But when fed, it pierces the leaf, and pathogenic microorganisms enter the wound. According to research data, 10-15% of individuals are infected with a dangerous mycoplasmal disease - potato stolbur.
To combat cicadas on potatoes, the tops are sprayed with a weak solution of ammonia (2 tablespoons per bucket of water). 40 g of laundry soap is added to the solution. It is best to destroy pests before adults appear, that is, from May to early July.
Spider mites
The spider mite is one of the most enduring potato pests. Its body is up to 0.6 mm long and has an oval shape. The color of adults is yellow-green, females become red or orange in winter and spring.
The insect does not tolerate direct sun rays, coolness and high humidity. It hides in reverse side leaves. The optimal conditions for it are air humidity up to 55% and temperature from +25 to +30 °С. On open areas pests appear in June, and leave for wintering in August. But in greenhouses where early and seed potatoes are grown, the tick is able to give up to 5 generations per season, and in heated greenhouses - up to 20 per year. Eggs remain in the soil for up to 5 years.
The presence of mites on potatoes is evidenced by a barely noticeable cobweb on the back of the leaf plate. Sometimes several leaves or flowers are braided with cobwebs. The leaves are covered with small yellow specks, which gradually turn red. The tops damaged by insects are dehydrated and dry out prematurely.
Against ticks, the same garlic infusion helps as against aphids.
Pesticides against aphids, thrips, leafhoppers and spider mites
A potato plantation is rarely attacked by only one type of pest. In order not to oversaturate the plants with pesticides, you need to choose for spraying universal means or prepare tank mixes.
With aphids, thrips and cicadas, everything is simple: most of them help well modern drugs against the Colorado potato beetle. Imidacloprid-based systemic insecticides have proven themselves well: Prestige, Colorado, Confidor, Commander and others.
To destroy the Colorado potato beetle, aphids, cicadas and thrips, agents based on:
- thiamethoxam ("Aktara", Kruizer", "Tiara", "Ephoria");
- organophosphorus compounds ("Aktellik", the active substance is pirimifos-methyl);
- pyrethroids ("Ivanhoe", "Tsunami", "Alfashance", the active substance is alpha-cypermethrin);
- aversectin-S ("Fitoverm");
- clothianidin ("Apache");
- bensultapa ("Bankol").
The problem is that not all of the listed remedies help against a tick: for example, thiamethoxam, which is effective against other insects, is powerless here. If attacked by potatoes spider mite, best option- insectoacaricide based on imidacloprid, organophosphorus compounds ("Aktellik") or pyrethroids.
But these substances decompose for a long time. If plantings need to be sprayed after flowering, it is best to use Bankol, which decomposes within 2 weeks, or Fitoverm (you can harvest 2-3 days after applying the product).
Good afternoon
Potatoes have long and firmly entered our diet and settled in the plots. It is not difficult to grow it, but a lot of the crop can be lost due to pests. In this article, we will consider the main potato pests with photographs and a detailed description.
Potato pests with photos and descriptions
Colorado beetles
Well known to many, striped beetles. The main color of chitin can be from yellow to yellow-brown with longitudinal dark stripes. Adult insects and their larvae are the most dangerous pests for planting potatoes. Pests that have appeared on the site can halve the crop of tubers.
Most great harm from Colorados of all stages of development is applied during flowering and tuber formation.
"Folk ways" of dealing with Colorado potato beetles:
- collection and destruction of insects of all ages from eggs to adult beetles;
- spraying plantings with infusions or decoctions of tansy, celandine or basil;
- mixed planting of potatoes and plants that repel pests with their smell. Most often it is legumes or coriander.
From chemicals most often they use the means of Taboo, Spark, Aktara or Commander. The main disadvantage of these preparations is that they must be used at least 20 days before harvest.
A good result is also given by biological products - Fitoverm or Agravertin. Their waiting period before harvesting is only 5-7 days. In addition, they are effective against pests of all ages.
wireworms
Hard as a wire, the larvae of the click beetle grow up to 3 cm in length. They live in the soil, they especially love the thickets of wheatgrass, where they feed on the underground parts of this weed. The larva does not deny itself the pleasure of eating potato tubers. The fight against this pest in a potato field begins with the fight against wheatgrass.
A tuber damaged by a wireworm is affected by rot pathogens, nematodes and various viruses.
To protect potato plantings from wireworms, you must:
- use fertilizers containing ammonia for feeding;
- reduce excessive acidity of the soil by adding lime to the soil;
- constantly loosen the soil and fight weeds;
- treat tubers before planting with insecticidal preparations of plant or chemical origin.
Taboo provides protection for potato bushes from pests for up to 45 days.
By appearance the pest looks like aphids or fleas. They use plant cell sap as food. The insect pierces the outer shell of the leaf and drinks the contents of the tissue. In this place, damage is formed, the tissue around which dies off, the leaf surface actively creating chlorophyll is reduced and the roots receive less nutrients.
Viruses, bacteria, spores of harmful fungi penetrate the leaf through damage in the outer shell. As they move from one plant to another, leafhoppers spread pathogens. infectious diseases, in particular, stolbur.
In the fight against this pest good results show preparations such as Taboo, Cruiser and Karate Zeon. With their help, you can not only protect the tubers before planting, but also destroy pests in areas adjacent to the potato bed.
These pests are found in potato crops all over the world. Adult bugs, growing up to 3 mm, damage the tops of potatoes, and six-legged larvae reproduce and live on the roots and in potato tubers. Thanks to their efforts, more than half of the harvest of the second bread can be lost.
The spread of the pest is facilitated by elevated air temperatures at low humidity and planting potatoes at a later date.
You can understand that fleas have settled on potatoes by dry spots and depressions on the surface of the leaves.
Flea control measures:
- Taboo drug used every 10 days.
- sticky traps for adult insects;
- in small, personal areas, processing plantings with chamomile infusion or a mixture can help wood ash and tobacco dust.
Potato nematodes
Microscopic worms, which you cannot see without magnifying devices. With the naked eye, only traces of the presence are visible, similar to millet grains, which cover the roots of a diseased plant.
Potato bushes affected by this pest grow more slowly, turn yellow on them. lower leaves, and the tubers may not start.
Control measures:
- planting pest-resistant varieties;
- correct crop rotation, including sowing green manure that cleans the soil from pests - legumes, corn, perennial grasses;
- return of potatoes to their original place no earlier than after 4 years;
- soil treatment from a pest with carbamide, thiazon or heterophos.
Another widespread potato pest. The greatest harm is caused by its larvae, which live in the soil for 4 years, and if in the first two years the harm from them is minimal, then in last years their life of larvae in the soil, they cause significant damage to potato plantings.
Departure of May beetles occurs at the end of April - beginning of May. The females begin to lay eggs, which will hatch into larvae after a few weeks. At this time, there is no harm from them, there is even a small benefit, because. they can only feed on organic residues, enriching the soil with the products of their vital activity.
As the larva grows, its food habits change and they switch to growing roots and tubers. In the fourth year of life, in the spring, an adult beetle will fly out of the larvae.
Beetle control methods:
collection and destruction of larvae;
- arrangement of night traps for adult beetles;
- covering the soil surface with mulching material sawdust or straw;
- loosening the soil in spring;
- attraction of birds that destroy beetles and their larvae;
- the introduction of nitrogen into the soil, repelling insects;
- the use of chemical and biological preparations;
- watering small areas with a pale solution of potassium permanganate or infusion of onion peel.
Medvedka
By damage horticultural crops approaches the three or four year old larva of the Maybug.
Signs of the presence of a bear on the site:
- noticeable small round holes on the beds;
- the bear leaves underground passages visible on the surface of the soil;
- plants damaged by a bear quickly wither and fall;
Fighting methods:
- after harvesting, in the fall, pits are arranged in the beds - traps. Dig holes, fill them horse manure and fill the holes with soil. With the onset of frost, manure from the hole is scattered over the site, the bears wintering in manure will freeze;
- deep digging of the soil in autumn;
- scare away the bear with pungent odors - coniferous, onion, garlic or rotten fish;
- set traps from fermented drinks or beer;
- chemicals: Prestige, Thunder, Medvetoks;
- set up poison traps: boil thick porridge and mix it with an odorless pesticide or mask the smell with odorous vegetable oil;
- timely harvest.
Helps in pest control. Weed removal and other preventive measures. Better to prevent breeding harmful insects than to fight them. Now we know them “by sight” - potato pests with photographs and full description. Also get to know
I wish you a healthy harvest!
Sincerely, Sofia Guseva.
We all love potatoes, so most owners summer cottages grow it.
To obtain good harvest(and even better and earlier) summer residents begin to prepare seed tubers long before planting, then they are planted, carefully caring for plantings.
But, nevertheless, sometimes the potato harvest does not please us at all.
For a person, potatoes are the second bread, but there are also competitors. For them potatoes are sometimes the first bread.
These are numerous potato pests. Most of them love, like us, to eat a tuber (bear, wireworm and others).
There are also those who love potatoes from tuber to flower (Colorado potato beetle).
The main potato pests in most regions are the mole cricket and the Colorado potato beetle.
There are many more rare, but also harmful insects. From all these gourmets, the potato gardener must be protected.
Characteristics of potato pests
Many plant pests are remarkably resistant to environmental influences.
They also adapt to the action of pesticides - they develop protection and genetically pass it on to their offspring.
Not an easy task - a garden in the country. But the summer resident knows how to protect potatoes.
And there are a lot of pests.
Colorado beetle
Dangerous potato pest: able to completely destroy plantings.
Mexican in origin, the beetle got its name after a massive damage to potatoes in the state of Colorado.
It happened way back in 1859.
A quarantine pest entered the territory of the USSR a hundred years later, having first taken a fancy to the Ukrainian SSR.
It was possible to restrain him until 1975. After the Colorado potato beetle managed to settle from the European territory of the country to the Far East.
Description. Bright, conspicuous, defiant striped color beetle.
Dimensions - 10 mm on average. Dense shiny orange body. Rigid elytra have strictly five stripes along. Stripes are black. Under the elytra are membranous wings.
Due to the membranous beetle, it flies well.
The reddish-orange beetle larvae are the most harmful. They hatch from small yellow eggs arranged in clusters of rows.
Eggs are attached to the bottom of the sheet, not immediately visible. But the work of the larvae cannot be seen. They are extremely voracious, grow rapidly, half outgrowing the length of their parents (15 mm).
Biology. In spring, male and female beetles ready for breeding come out of winter shelters.
They wintered deep in the ground, sometimes deeper than half a meter, already adults. By the time of release, the Colorado potato beetle already has comfortable conditions development.
Before the appearance of nightshade, he will not come out, he will wait for heat. One female beetle will lay up to a thousand eggs per season (depending on the region, how many generations she has time to give).
For half a month of feeding, the hatched larvae undergo four molts.
Eating the foliage to the stems, they grow and go into the ground. There, shallow (10 cm), they pupate.
After two, sometimes three weeks, it is already an adult beetle. He either goes out to continue the invasion of the nightshade, or remains in the ground to winter if the feeding season is over.
extreme heat or chemical treatments"drive" the beetle, causing long flights.
He can overcome tens of kilometers "by flight". Having found a suitable place, he will continue his destructive activity.
The beetle loves young potato foliage, from early plantings it partially moves to those that are younger.
When the potatoes are finished, or they are dug up by the owners, the beetle does not fly away. Switches to tomatoes, planting peppers.
And he especially loves eggplant beds - they get no less than potatoes.
Control measures. The beetle is not afraid of “chemistry” a little: it dies partially, not from all poisons and not in all phases.
The survivors continue to develop and feed, give offspring resistant to the drug.
This is a problem for industrial plantings, but a gardener can protect his plot from potato pests.
The techniques and methods are as follows:
- Mechanical;
- Agrotechnical;
- biological;
- Chemical.
Mechanical- against a broom and a bucket of stability, not a single Colorado potato beetle has yet been able to develop.
We substitute the bucket from one side of the bush and with a broom sharply shake it off with a gentle shaking on the other side into the bucket - beetles.
At the bottom of the bucket should be liquid, preferably with the addition of diesel fuel or pesticides. So that the Colorado potato beetle could not crawl out or fly away. You will have to do this often.
Some females will still have time to lay eggs on the bottom of the leaf.
This is easily eliminated: with fingers in work gloves, we press the sheet from above and below at the masonry site. The eggs are crushed, the leaf remains intact.
If you overlooked or missed the moment, and the larvae appeared, the broom will help again.
Only the bucket must be substituted quickly, but carefully - the larvae, like beetles, fall down from touch instantly. Like overripe apricots from a branch in the wind.
This is an adaptive reaction: to fall and hide, to survive.
It is necessary to adapt with the beetle: who will outwit whom.
There is also a technique for catching bait. The potatoes have just risen, the beetle has gone up, hilling is being carried out with seedlings falling asleep.
And in the aisles, pieces of cut potatoes are laid out. Hungry bugs will find them, and the landlord will find the bugs themselves.
Agrotechnical. We take into account the biology of the pest.
It hibernates in the soil. So, a well-thought-out crop rotation is required. Rotation of crops on the site.
We do not plant potatoes in the same area - this is strict. After nightshade, you can’t either. Tomatoes, eggplants, peppers grew on the plot - these are unsuccessful predecessors for potatoes.
Next to these crops, planning for planting is another mistake. Crop rotation along the way and from other potato pests will alienate his plots.
Digging. Having dug up the site before frosts, you will violate the "apartments" of those individuals who remained to winter shallow.
Not all fall into winter dormancy at great depths, especially in regions of mild winters.
Part of the beetles will freeze to death (remember - one female is capable of producing a thousand offspring).
Spring re-digging or milling of soil that is already almost ripe, but still cold for the pest, will complement the process.
Biological. The use of drugs that have a detrimental effect on the beetle.
No one else is harmed by them. The long-known bitoxibacillin is still relevant today.
Later ones are also used: agravertin, fitoverm.
Chemical. If it is not possible to cope with the beetle, the deadlines are missed, and instead of leaves on potatoes with rowan clusters - the larvae of the Colorado beetle, insecticides have to be used.
It is advisable not to bring the planting of potatoes to such an unpleasant state.
This is the loss of productivity (and even the entire crop), and the contact of the gardener himself with poisons.
Previously, organophosphorus pesticides were actively used, now they are trying to avoid them: they are highly toxic.
Chlorophos - the former protector of potatoes - is prohibited, karbofos is almost never used.
Aktara is a good preparation - sticking to the leaves, it is not washed off by rain. Protects the month, does not penetrate the tuber.
Medvedka
The pest is large, polyphagous, numerous. It differs externally from other insects in size and appearance.
Potatoes are a tuber vegetable among the favorite delicacies of the bear, like everything juicy that is located underground.
Description. It’s hard not to recognize this insect, the bear only looks like itself.
Refers to Orthoptera: has wings. It flies, however, very rarely, and even gets out of the ground at night. During the day it is difficult to see a bear, if only when digging the soil.
The body color is brown, the abdomen is lighter than the front.
Medvedka (adult) is larger than five centimeters. The front part is hard - shell. It is shorter than the soft abdomen.
The shell allows the bear to retract its head into it, but not completely. The oral apparatus is well adapted for gnawing and grinding plants.
The front legs of the bear are burrowing, with which she makes underground passages, equips nests.
A relative of crickets, the bear cannot jump. But underground, close to the surface, it can "come" almost the entire garden.
Biology. Likes warmth and moisture. But it settles almost all over the country.
Only northerners were lucky not to meet this potato pest.
Polyphagous, almost no vegetation will be neglected. That's why it's alive.
The female builds nests in the soil, chooses the depth according to temperature: so that her incubator warms up.
It cuts over the nest of the plant and monitors the constancy of the temperature.
Three weeks or a month and a horde of small copies of the bear, still soft, light gray, is ready to eat. There are 200 or more of them in the nest.
Control measures. It's hard to fight a bear. General measures to combat various pests of potatoes (and a bear too) - as in the fight against the harmful Colorado potato beetle.
These are crop rotation, agricultural technology, poisoned baits.
Other types of traps are also used:
- Trapping manure pits (before winter);
- Buried bottles with leftover beer.
Chemical measures are difficult, drugs are used only with grain mixture in the wells during planting, but this is ineffective.
wireworm
Damage to the tubers, in addition to aesthetic harm and loss of presentation, the wireworm opens the entrance to fungal infections, bacterial lesions.
Description. The wireworm is a black beetle, the length of an adult is 5 mm.
Dense long worm-like larvae are harmful. They are yellow, multi-segmented. Voracious, like all insect larvae.
The tuber of such a larva pierces through like a wire, which is why, perhaps, the beetle itself got its name.
The beetle is also called a nutcracker: if you put it on a hard surface with its back down, the beetle bends, making a characteristic click. At the same time, he rolls over to his feet.
In the “pre-computer era”, children loved to watch these upheavals.
This is also a defining feature: having found a similar beetle on the site, you can check if it is a wireworm or another type of insect. It clicks and turns over, which means it is.
Biology. Long-liver - the larva can make holes in potatoes in the area for 5 years before pupating in the soil.
In winter, she hides deeper into the ground - half a meter. Adult click beetles hibernate shallowly.
Having matured, the larva pupates, then transforms into a young beetle, which will fly out to lay eggs in the spring.
Control measures. General agrotechnical accepted for potatoes, plus specific for the pest.
- The aroma of marigolds repels the wireworm, for him it is unpleasant.
- Doesn't like neighbors legume family- you can sow peas along the potatoes, next to the plot - alfalfa. Beans, if it is bush, will also fit into the neighbors.
- Potatoes have difficult enemies to eliminate, the wireworm is no exception. Summer residents adapt at least to reduce the number of pests with traps. For bait, slices of potatoes are laid out on the site. Lay the chopped tubers and in banks buried flush with the ground.
- You can make a "barbecue" for the larvae - string pieces of potatoes on sticks or wire and dig them into the soil of the site. Periodically reach, destroying the caught wireworms.
- Create acceptable conditions in the garden for birds, they will help to catch the nutcracker. Put water - birds settle near the water. Just remember to put a plank in the water: sometimes a bird falls into a container and cannot get out. The board will help.
- Destroy wheatgrass, this is a hotbed of wireworm.
- The wireman chooses acidic soils. Lime them, add chalk, ash (wood).
- Biological method: Bioground "Protection". It is laid out in the holes when planting. The wireworm will face its enemy, the nembuck wireworm, and will be defeated.
Nematode
The potato has a named enemy: the golden potato nematode. Sounds good, looks bad.
The damage is enormous. It is specific, develops on potatoes and plants of its family - nightshade. Attacks roots.
Description. A nematode is a miniature, microscopic worm. It does not grow more than a millimeter, but nematodes are numerous.
First, the roots are affected - tubers may not develop at all on potatoes.
There are types of nematodes that also affect the tuber. This is the stem nematode. She strikes the stem, he, trying to compensate for this, strongly branches, bushes.
By the end of the growing season, the nematode passes to the tubers, it is not visible - it is small.
Already during storage it turns out: the tubers are infected. They turn blue in places, the peel is covered with cracks, inner part turns into dark dust.
By spring, almost the entire crop may be lost in storage.
If the bushes do not grow, the roots are covered with swellings, there are almost no tubers and they are ugly bumps - this is a gall nematode.
Control measures. Nematodes infect the soil, then live in the infected area for many years.
Only prevention is effective here:
- Healthy planting material;
- Competent crop rotation;
- Separate storage of tubers intended for seed purposes;
- Disinfection of the instrument if it has been in contact with the soil where the nematode could be contained;
- Autumn digging;
- Disinfection of tubers with potassium permanganate - a weak solution - before planting;
- Preplant application of urea to the site;
- The introduction of ash into the hole.
naked slugs
These unpleasant mollusks are very harmful. Potatoes, however, are attacked infrequently.
Prefer non-poisonous delicate foliage of cruciferous: lettuce, radish, cabbage.
They can eat onions: eat foliage to the very bulb.
If the slug is so unfortunate that there is nothing like it on his table, and such luck that the year turned out to be rainy, the toothy one will come to the potatoes.
It will get to the tuber and will eat, spoiling the crop for the owner of the site.
Control measures. Conventional, improvised means:
- Traps - wet rags, boards, cardboard - laid out in different places at night, work during the day. The slugs will hide there from the light and heat. Once the covers are removed, the insects are easy to collect. If there are chickens and especially ducks in the country, they will be happy with such feeding.
- Sprinkling the aisles with ashes: the slug will not overcome the barrier, the alkali burns its body.
- You can cover approaches to potatoes with a layer of sand - the slug will not dare to move along the sand.
- The slug does not like strong coffee either. Spraying the seedlings and the ground around with the coffee solution will protect the potatoes.
- Slugs die from salt, but it is undesirable to salt the soil - plants will not be happy with salt either.
- You won't find slug in parsley. This potato pest does not like the smell herbs. If he's annoyed by potatoes, sow parsley next to him - look at the result.
potato scoop
Potatoes and scoops have their own - potato scoop. But the pest is not specific, polyphagous, despite the name.
Scoop is an inconspicuous brownish, sometimes gray butterfly of medium size. Wingspan: 3-4 cm.
The butterfly is harmful only as a producer, and the damage is done by the caterpillar.
All caterpillars are voracious. The scoop robs at night, during the day it hides in prudently gnawed potato tubers.
Control measures. You can’t just take a scoop, in addition to agricultural technology, you will have to connect “chemistry”.
This will reduce the environmental friendliness of products, but will provide it with a chance to exist.
Try to take the safest drugs. Nembakt, Aktellik, Bazudin.
Follow the instructions - take care of your health, busting is dangerous.
Khrushch
May beetle larva is a problem in the potato plot. She loves to eat, sizes (4 cm - adult) dictate her appetite.
I crunch a tuber - and a table, and a temporary home. The larva eats this house from the inside to the peel.
This potato pest is a gardener's disaster.
The larvae live quietly, feed, hibernate in the ground up to 4 years, then pupate and become beetles by autumn. These beetles will overwinter and fly out to feed.
They live in forest and forest-steppe regions, which is almost everywhere in the country in the European part.
In Asia too - to the eastern borders, excluding the cold northern places.
The beetle is large. An adult - a pest of forest and park plants and plantations (trees), gardens - eats foliage.
The larvae eat everything underground, they are omnivores. The roots of trees, garden plants, weeds - everything goes to the "Khrushchev table".
The larva feasts there for up to 4 years, it will easily destroy the tree in a day.
The biology of the beetle is characterized by cyclicity: it is not always possible to see it.
Three years, sometimes four years - mass hatching and emergence of adults.
Then for ten years it is not visible, this does not mean getting rid of the pest. The May beetle is busy with active reproduction, preparing for the next summer and flight: settling spaces free from it.
Control measures. From the description it can be seen that they are not simple:
- Mechanical - two diggings (autumn, spring), and the collection of larvae at this time.
- Sowing of umbrella plants - dill, coriander, fennel. They are attractive to the enemies of the beetle - entomophages that feed on pest larvae.
- At the beginning of summer, early in the morning, the beetles are still cold. You can shake them off, inactively sitting on the branches - on the litter. They will not run away - they are numb from the cold.
- Sod in the garden. Sodding deprives the Khrushchev of the possibility of laying eggs in the soil. This will protect the garden, but you can't cover the vegetable garden.
- The plot for the garden is protected by sowing legumes. Their peculiarity is to release nitrogen into the soil with root nodules, which is very unpleasant for the beetle. If clover, alfalfa, beans, peas are buried in the ground when digging, additional protection is created. The beetle leaves the area.
- Lupine and mustard Achilles' heel Khrushcha. This is what they cannot eat, neither the larvae nor the May beetles. The latter can not stand the smell, they fly away.
- From chemical compounds it is worth paying attention: unloved beetle - chlorine. Sprinkling of chlorine earth during digging is unpleasant for a person, but no more than the harm from the beetle.
- A special preparation - antikhrushch will help with the mass settlement of the site by this potato pest. Before planting the tubers, shed the wells with a diluted suspension. Works for a long time.
- Biopreparations. And this is where nembakt, fitoverm comes in handy.
- Weak solutions of potassium permanganate or ammonia, an infusion of onion husks - improvised means - also work against Khrushchev.
- If there are shrews on the site, they will cope with the Khrushchev themselves.
potato moth
Unwanted, relatively young, newcomer to the country. A nondescript butterfly made its way from the south.
Kuban learned about it thirty years ago. The butterfly itself does not eat, it has eaten more larvae, now the function is reproduction.
Generations of moths are capable of giving up to 8, if the region is warm.
The larvae immediately start feeding. Beautiful name moths - fluorimea does not cover the outrages created by the larvae.
Caterpillars mine the stems, leaves - gnaw out the internal contents, the pulp, leaving the surface shells of the leaf intact. It can be seen: whitish winding stripes, passages inside the leaves and there are insect mines.
Larvae and tubers penetrate, at first they are invisible. But the vaults are a real paradise for moths. She winters there, eats, turns potatoes into dust.
Control measures. This potato pest is a quarantine pest.
It was possible to restrain him in pre-perestroika times. After the journey, the potato moth began to be determined by the thickness of the purse carrying the infected material.
The quarantine barriers have been greatly shaken. The moth settled in all regions suitable for its temperature.
Hosts even where it is cold - in storage. After all, no one will freeze food, and even seed potatoes.
Need to fight:
- The resumption of quarantine, and for all nightshade.
- Disinfection of storage facilities in summer.
- Glue traps with pheromones - during the summer period, moths - on the site.
- Variety selection. Moth-prone areas dangerous pest can be bypassed. Early varieties vegetate at temperatures unacceptable for potato moths. By growing them, this misfortune can be avoided.
- Embedding depth. The sissy - the larva of the potato moth - will not go deeper than 10 cm. It's cold there, especially on early landings. Deep planting and subsequent high hilling (landing on ridges) will protect early potatoes, the moth will not get close to the tubers.
- For the same purpose - to keep the tubers deeper - the irrigation method is chosen. Physiological sprinkling method. Plants will be stronger, pests will become tight.
- Potato tubers (early) deep planting will save. But the above-ground part can be affected. Therefore, they use agricultural technology - they mow the tops at the beginning of yellowing. They burn it, dig up the crop, remove it from the plot immediately. Dry in another, moth-free place.
- Good old friends - biologics - entobacterin, bitoxibacillin are also used against this serious potato pest.
Potato big aphid
But it also hurts potatoes. Basically - as a carrier of diseases.
In morphology and biological features, it is close to other aphids, there are no special differences.
Control measures:
- Agrotechnical - destruction of weeds, cleaning of fields during the period free from plants, crop rotation;
- Biological - the use of biopreparations that destroy aphids, safe for humans;
- Chemical - insecticide treatment;
- Household helpers - the use of an ash-soap solution, disinfection of greenhouses, the use of burning solutions (garlic, mustard, tobacco, celandine).
mouse rodents
They are found in all areas, only the number is different.
In the summer, mice find other food for themselves, and by autumn they take a fancy to juicy potato tubers. Rats can even drag tubers into burrows.
In storage facilities - permanent and temporary - rats ruin crops. They gnaw different tubers, damaged potatoes get sick, rot.
It's harder to fight them. On the site, the main helpers are cats.
In vaults inaccessible to cats, poisoned baits are laid out.
Various designs of mousetraps and rat traps also help. Rats, however, are smart, extremely cautious. If there is a rat-catcher, the matter is simplified.
We got acquainted with the main potato pests, but that's not all to attack our favorite vegetable. There are also many diseases - non-infectious. We will deal with them in subsequent articles.
It is not easy to grow potatoes, to protect them from all kinds of hungry tuber lovers. But the work is not in vain.
Already in the summer, a young potato will begin to please the gardener's family.
And then it will be the queen of the table in different variations - until the next harvest.
See you soon, dear readers!
