Potato moth - storage control measures

Story

Even some 150 years ago in our country about the potato moth and did not hear. This misfortune complained to our country not so long ago, and the population of the southern regions was the first to meet it. For the potato moth, the habitat is Africa. It was here that hordes of the pest were walking in ancient times. Today, the mole has settled all over the planet, where the average annual temperature does not fall below 10 degrees - only in such a climate can a mole reproduce.

Interesting!

The insect spends winter in the ground with the pupa or the remains of organic matter. If a form has been entered into the repository, it continues its life cycle. Depending on the climate for the year can change from 2 to 8 generations.

It is very important to find out in time what a potato mole is and how to deal with it.

Appearance

Potato moth

The potato moth is a small, inconspicuous insect that looks like a night butterfly. With full wingspan its size does not exceed one and a half centimeters. Appearance moth inconspicuous: the front wings are gray-brown with dots and stripes, the back ones are painted only in gray. The edges of the wings are uneven, terry.

Stages of development

The life of the potato moth consists of four stages: the egg, the larva, the pupa, and the adult butterfly.

In the summer, a full cycle of potato moths takes place in about a month (depending on air temperature), whereas in winter the same processes take from 2 to 4 months. Only the larva stage is dangerous for potatoes, adult moth even has no proboscis for food.

Lifestyle

The potato moth on the photo seems inconspicuous and uninteresting, let alone the natural habitat: moving around the garden doesn’t just pay attention. Its color and size allows it to remain invisible at any time of the day. The insect shows the most activity in the early morning, before the sun has risen, and in the late evening, when it has already gone down.

To understand whether the potato moth has settled your backyard plot, it is enough to pass along the edge of the plantings, disturbing the potato tops. If there is an insect, they fly over the grass after the first alarm, hiding again after a few meters. It is impossible for the butterfly to sit on the ground and the leaves, how to distinguish it from the background is impossible, it is so invisible.

In the butterfly stage, the potato moth spends about 21 days.During this period, it needs to have time to lay up to 200 eggs on the tubers themselves, on the leaves, on the stems, in the soil, and even on the relatives of potatoes - other representatives of the nightshade (including tomatoes).

For 5-15 days inside the egg matures caterpillar potato moth. For gardeners, this stage is the most harmful, since the greatest damage to plantings is caused moth larvae.

Potato moth larvae

Caterpillar is colored yellow-pink or greenish. Its length is about a centimeter. This stage develops up to 48 days, during which it has time to shed four times.

After a set number of days, the potato moth caterpillar makes its own cocoon and turns into a pupa. Caterpillars prefer to attach a cocoon to plants, to walls or in the cracks of the cellar floor, pupating directly in the soil.

The pupa waits the winter in the upper layers of the soil or under the remnants of the tops. With the first warm days, gray butterflies appear, ready to fight against the nightshade.

You can find a potato mole in the garden during the whole season in its various forms. After the season ends and the infected fruits are sent for storage, the insect continues to develop and reproduce.

Interesting!

Potato moth is a living creature: even if the temperature in the storage facility drops to -1 degree (damaging the tubers), the caterpillars will remain intact. The potato mole will die (any stage) only at a temperature below -4 degrees and above 36. The optimum temperature is 22-26 degrees. Humidity should not exceed 80%.

Fighting in the garden

To discover the potato moth, be sure to regularly and carefully inspect the plants. In the first place, it is possible to notice the waste products of an insect on fruits, trunks and foliage.

The caterpillar gets into the fruit through the stem or from the end where the flower was located. In potato tubers - through cracks, in the places of attachment to the roots or through the "eyes".

Up to 6 caterpillars can sneak into one fruit at a time, although in order to destroy it, one is enough.

Traces of potato moth

The potato moth causes the greatest damage to potato tubers. In order not to allow the larvae to penetrate into the potato, carry out preventive measures:

• Potatoes need to be planted deeper, and spud higher - only a layer of earth from 15 cm can save from the pest;
• Cleaning should be carried out before drying tops. 7-14 days before digging, the greens are mown and immediately harvested, not allowing the caterpillars to dig into the ground;
• If traces of moths are noticed, the site should be treated with chemicals. You can fight at home with potato moths using the same tools that are used to eliminate the Colorado potato beetle: fastak, decis and others. After processing, it should take at least 20 days before eating potatoes;
• Dug up tubers should be removed from the field immediately, because in just an hour or two a butterfly can have time to lay eggs, thereby spoiling the entire crop.

Important!

It is possible to get rid of the potato moth, but this will require some effort and careful adherence to the recommendations. But all efforts are worth it if, as a result, the harvest of potatoes and other nightshade is saved.

Fight in storage

If at the time of transfer of the crop to the storehouse there are signs of the appearance of a pest, it will be necessary to fight potato moths in the basement. First of all, it is necessary to process tubers from the parasite with special preparations. Some of them can be made at home, some can be purchased in stores.

In order for the potato mole to die, it is necessary to combine two drugs: planriz and lepidocid. The first is used to prevent fungal infections, the second - to combat pests.

It is easy to prepare a solution, its quantity is due to the volume of the crop.

Larvae and caterpillars of potato moth

Potato moth will be defeated with the help of such a solution: in 100 liters of water add half a liter of planriz and two liters of lepidocide. Potatoes are dipped in a freshly prepared composition for 5-10 minutes. After this treatment, the tubers must be thoroughly dried.

The processed crop can be cleaned in the cellar. You can eat it in just a few days. If you immerse potatoes in this composition before planting, it will save it from infection in the spring months.

Some gardeners prefer to use a different composition for processing: a liter of 1% solution of bacterial preparations is used for 150 liters of water. Processing technology is similar to the first option.

Store drugs can be no longer than two years.

These methods can defeat the mole in the potato, the harvest of which was small. With significant amounts, it is necessary to think about what should be not the control measures during storage, but preventive measures.

It is necessary to carefully inspect the repository for the remaining pupae from the last year or recently flown butterflies. If there are suspicions about their presence, the room must be treated with fumigants or whitened with quicklime. Experienced gardeners recommend using special smoke bombs at home to get rid of the pest - FAS or Gamma.

Remedies for potato moth

You can also fight potato moth in the cellar by spraying Entobacterin solution. This tool is used against an adult individual. The moth in the treated room is not able to lay eggs.

Interesting!

The optimum temperature for storing potatoes is + 3 + 5 degrees. Mole does not develop at low temperature. near zero and perishes over time.

Quarantine

In order for the plants in the new season not to be infected, it is necessary to observe strict quarantine measures:

• Outside the phytosanitary zone, potatoes must move according to the rules.
• It is important to monitor the availability of certificates purchased material.
• Comply with a number of measures aimed at eliminating the lesion:
  1. For planting, use only uninfected, treated tubers;
  2. The new place of sowing and wintering should be removed from last year’s not less than a kilometer;
  3. Perform timely processing of the field;
  4. To destroy self-seeding contaminated by moths;
  5. Destroy tops;
  6. Correctly harvest and timely transport to storage in the basement (or other premises);
  7. Potatoes from different fields should be stored in separate rooms;
  8. Treat the soil contaminated with moths with chemicals at least once every 10 days.

Having figured out how to get rid of the potato moth in the cellar and in the garden, it is imperative to observe preventive measures and timely treat the plants from the moth that has already appeared. Only accurate adherence to the recommendations will help preserve the harvest.