Potato moth: measures of struggle during storage by folk remedies and preparations (photo)

Potato moth is a very insidious, inconspicuous and quiet pest. During the growing season, its larvae feed on the terrestrial part of the plants, and after harvesting, when everything seems to be already behind, they are able to destroy almost all the grown potatoes in the vaults. While the Colorado beetle has already turned into habitual evil over the past half century, many rural residents and owners of vegetable gardens still do not know anything about potato moths in the middle belt. Given that this parasite is encountered more and more often, information about what a potato moth is is not superfluous. Fighting measures, including storage, also need to know in order to protect the harvest of the potatoes we so fond of.

Homeland of the pest

Potato moth, or fluoride, is as exotic as the Colorado beetle. This couple, who loves the plants of the Solanaceae family, comes from Central and South America. Fluoridea is a heat-loving insect, but this pest has already spread to all continents. Increasingly, it is found in the south of Russia - in the Crimea, the Rostov region and the Krasnodar Territory, so gardeners and farmers from these regions managed to find out what a potato moth is, and they already know the measures to combat it.

If the temperature does not fall below 10 ° C in vegetable storage in winter, the conditions are quite suitable for the life and reproduction of such a pest as a potato moth. Measures to combat the storage of vegetables with this pest is therefore also very relevant. Although originally a native climate for this insect are the tropics, it turns out that it adapts well in the temperate latitudes. Depending on climatic conditions, two to eight generations of moths may develop over a season.

Appearance

To combat the parasite, you need to know what it looks like. Butterfly of potato moth - insect is small, with a wingspan of about 15 mm. It is unattractive, and, unlike the same Colorado beetle, it does not attract attention at all, with gray wings in a dark speck, with long antennae. The hind wings are decorated with a long light fringe. Complicating matters is also the fact that the activity of moles occurs at night. But, disturbing the potato bushes during the day, you can see how the small butterflies soar, spin over the tops and again sit on the leaves and stems, merging with them.

Eggs of butterflies are very small, and for this reason they are also difficult to notice. One female lives from a few days to 3-4 weeks, and during this period can postpone up to 200 eggs. The caterpillars of this pest are naked, dirty-cream or greenish in color (depending on whether they feed on the tuber or leaves), about 10 mm long. Pupae are also small, within half a centimeter. Here, perhaps, is all you need to know about what a potato moth looks like. Control measures, folk remedies, which no gardener can do without, and which are effective against pests and are safe for humans, will be considered below.

Symptoms of potato infection

How can we understand that the potato is infected? At first the parasite affects the ground part of the plant. There is a so-called mining of leaves and stems of the ground portion of the potato, i.e. gnawing of the passages in plant tissues. In places of penetration and in the courses themselves, the larvae leave excrement. Clear signs of infection leave the insect on potato tubers: under the skin, the stitches are turned, inside the root crop can be completely eroded.

From moths only potatoes suffer, but also other Solanaceae: tomato, eggplant, pepper, tobacco, and wild-growing representatives of this family including nightshade, datura, and physalis. From the weeds belonging to Solanaceae, it is better to get rid of it in time. In potato tubers, the parasite penetrates through the eyes or small lesions, into tomatoes or into the eggplant - through the stem. And one larva is able to completely ruin the fruit, and in vegetables and tubers there are sometimes almost a dozen, and then, eaten from the inside, they turn literally into rubbish.

Now, knowing what kind of pest is a potato moth, the measures of struggle during storage and when growing solanaceous cultures will undoubtedly be interesting.

How to get rid of fluoride

If the garden and vegetable plot has been infected with a pest such as a potato moth, the control measures should initially consist in the use of healthy seed material, deep digging of soil in both autumn and spring. Potatoes should be planted as early as possible, using their early varieties, which are practically not damaged by uninvited guests. The depth of planting is also important. It is worthwhile to either plant potatoes deeper than usual, or in the process of growth regularly high it to hill, not allowing the bare tubers.

Harvest as quickly as possible and before the tops turn yellow and dry, and the pest will move from the "tops" to the "roots". It is better to mow the ground part of the plant beforehand, within a week. If found tops or fruits, affected by moth, they must be burned, not discarded. Potatoes should be taken out from the field within a day, otherwise the butterflies having an amazing sense of smell can find it even under cover and populate with eggs.

Preparations for the control of fluoride: pesticides

Widely used for the destruction of such a pernicious insect, as a potato moth, fighting measures. Preparations (both chemical and biological) are popular with gardeners. And since the first butterflies of potato moth appear almost simultaneously with overwintered individuals of the Colorado beetle, one can direct efforts to combat these pests at the same time, since the means that destroy the beetle are also effective against moths. We are talking about such drugs as "Arrivo", "Decis", "Inta-VIR", "Sherpa" and others.

You need to do the treatment in the beginning of summer, do not wait until the butterflies lay eggs and there are gluttonous larvae. After two weeks, the treatment should be repeated. At the end of August, the Colorado potato beetle is no longer a danger, but the number of potato moths is maximal, so the struggle with fluoride is crucial in this period. It is important to remember that the same insecticide is not recommended for more than 2-3 times, and the last treatment should be carried out no later than 20 days before harvest.

Folk remedies against potato moths

If we talk not about pesticides, but about folk remedies for combating potato moth, we can advise all the same tools that have proved themselves well over the long decades of a difficult struggle with the Colorado beetle. This is a solution of ash with laundry soap, a decoction of wormwood or onion husks. However, these methods, of course, are not as effective as the use of special drugs, and in the conditions of farming or the production of potatoes on an industrial scale and not at all.

Biological preparations

We must not forget about the biological means of combating the potato moth. As a rule, these are toxins, the action of which is to damage the digestive tract and disturb the digestive process of pests, but they can also have a paralyzing effect on parasites. You can mention such means as Bitoksibatsillin, Kinmiks, Lepidotsid, Entobakterin and others. It's good in biological preparations that they decompose quickly without jeopardizing the health of people and animals.

Potato moth. Control measures in storage

After harvesting the potato harvest in the vault, one should not relax at all. The pest that got there with the tubers can perfectly continue its development there, and the damaged tubers rot, so the losses risk reaching 80%. To prevent the whole harvest from killing the potato moth, the measures of storage should be continued.

First of all, before laying the potatoes can be processed already mentioned above biological preparations with the help of sprayers. But if the temperature in the store is within 3-5 ° C and does not rise above, then there is nothing to worry about - this regime will not allow the pest to develop and damage the tubers, but pupae can overwinter, so if there is any doubt, it is better to treat the potatoes before planting with bacterial preparations. Bends pest, regardless of the stage of its development, if the ambient temperature drops below -4 ºC.

It is necessary to subject the room itself to a certain treatment: a cellar, a cellar or a storehouse, including the container in which it is supposed to store potatoes. In order not to develop a potato moth, measures of struggle during storage by folk remedies include, for example, whitewashing the room with quicklime. As for chemicals, smoke bombs are widely spread to get rid of pests .

Conclusion

Now, when it is known that there is such a pest - a potato moth, storage control measures, photos of butterflies, larvae and pupae - that information that will help the owners of household plots be ready to attack and keep the potato harvest.

Generally speaking, in order to prevent a mass infection with fluoride, quarantine measures are necessary: regular potato testing in storage facilities with the help of pheromone traps, a ban on the importation of solanaceous cultures from infected areas. This will ensure timely localization and elimination of pest outbreaks.