How many angry articles written about the wireworm, the larva of the may beetle, which feed on potato tubers, reducing yield. When cleaning potatoes, cutting out the moves of the wireworm, every time we remember it with a bad word: after all, time is spent, and there is no beauty, if you need to cook the tuber whole.
And we would rejoice that our landing field and attack these friendly insects. And so we can talk about many familiar to us insect pests, because no one worse than they we just have not seen.
Good thing we don’t have any Andean weevils
These beetles live in the homeland of potatoes, in the Andes. There are years when weevils destroy all potatoes, up to 100%. Colorado potato beetle can be seen from afar, and weevils are very often stained with earth, and the color of them is imperceptibly dirty, which in the complex becomes an excellent disguise.
A full cycle of development occurs on potato plants, but adult beetles can feed on oats, radishes, sorrel and not only. At the same time, weevils also hide in the soil during the day, the activity is all night: they feed and mate incognito, so that people do not see.
Eggs are laid not on potato leaves, but on plant residues that lie on the soil near the bushes. Hatched larvae are introduced into tubers, their tissues are fed. When you eat the right amount of food, pupate at a depth of 30 cm, without leaving the surface. Local larvae farmers call white potato worms.
Natural enemies are almost there, except the ants. The harmfulness is great: even with systemic insecticide treatment, beetles destroy almost half of the crop, and if there are no treatments, then there is no harvest.
These beetles do not know how to fly, only crawl, because the fields free from them are protected by solid plastic plates, plates or simply stretched plastic film. This is a fairly reliable way of protection, because the pest on the field crawls from another site. Andean weevils can be a phytosanitary hazard.
Meloidogyne chitwoodi
This nematode in the North-Western States of the USA is considered to be the main economically significant pest. The tubers, which she ruined, not stored (rotting), they cannot be sent for recycling. This pest has already been found in Germany, Holland, Belgium and France. And not only on potatoes in the field, but also in greenhouses, on other types of plants. Nematode, it turns out, quite to taste carrots, beets, tomatoes, beans, peas, corn, barley…
And you can get a nematode with bulbous and rhizomatous (onion, Narcissus, Tulip, iris, saffron, hyacinth). Its temperate climate is quite satisfactory, and it gives up to three generations per season.
How good that we don’t have tomato Moth
Moth fell in love with 34 species of nightshade, which is harmful in Paraguay, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, Uruguay and other countries. Will you say that Brazil is far from Russia? This is true, but tomatoes and peppers, which can be considered conditionally affected, our country buys millions of tons.
The moth has a night life, each lays approximately 160 eggs (one at a time or in groups) on the petioles or the sepals of the flowers. The caterpillars make a tiny hole and penetrate the fruit. If at least one settled inside, it is no longer suitable for food, and the caterpillars can be much more. An adult caterpillar, leaving the fruit, chews a large hole, and this is the gate for fungal infections.
Potato and tomato moth
It is good that they are distributed in limited areas, although they are considered a quarantine object. Potato neither spring nor summer not to detect her a lot to harvest, so it spoils in storage.
Let’s rejoice
That our pests are not only familiar to us, but also studied.
Let us rejoice that we are able to defend ourselves against them.
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