Potato moth and how to deal with it most effectively

Hello! Own potatoes on the site - it is very good and delicious.

But you need to be vigilant when leaving, otherwise it will be like mine. I did not notice the appearance of potato moths in time. Found when the leaves were already half eaten.

Surgery on my part prevented the loss of a valuable crop. Want to learn more about potato moth and how to deal with it? I will try to provide you with the most detailed and valuable information.

How to get rid of potato moth?

Potato moth - an insect that harms potatoes and tobacco, and when these crops are not present, they can attack tomatoes, eggplant and other nightshade. Today this insect is known all over the world.

The most favorable conditions for the propagation of potato moths is a stable temperature regime within +/- 10 degrees throughout the year. In such regions, potato moth is a real scourge for gardeners and farmers.

Description

In appearance, this butterfly is not at all bright, with wings of a dirty gray color and black spotting on their surface. This color allows the insect to remain inconspicuous even at close range.

The butterfly with a long mustache has a reduced oral cavity. She can’t eat, so her life span is no more than 2-3 days, rarely 1-2 weeks. The body length of an insect with folded wings is about 7 cm.

Light pink moth caterpillars have a longitudinal pale strip along the back. Potato moth lays eggs of a tiny size, inconspicuous even near. Their size is about 0.5 mm. The laying of rapidly developing eggs takes place on the inside of the leaf plate. White laid eggs turn yellow over time.

Biological features

The period between egg laying and the appearance of adults is about 1 month. In winter, potato moth develops longer - up to 2 months. In severe climatic conditions, the reproduction of the insect is impossible, since too low a temperature regime of -4 degrees leads to its death.

The annual distribution of larvae occurs by moving them to warehouses for storing crops. In winter they breed, and in spring they are planted in the ground along with planting material. Sometimes potato moths winter quite successfully under the cover of fallen leaves in the open ground.

Potato moth larvae infect root crops, eat leaves and leaf legs.Therefore, the insect is quite rapidly spreading. At night, when butterflies are especially active, various birds and insects eat them.

An adult lives no more than two weeks. During this period, she mates and lays eggs. In countries with warm climates, potato moths can produce up to 3-4 generations per season.

This insect actively and successfully breeds both on agricultural land and in enclosed warehouses. Such an environment provides its intensive reproduction. The main pests are caterpillars.

The danger posed by potato moth for planting:

• The destruction of leaves and stems leads to the weakening of garden crops.
• Damage to tubers is a consequence of a decrease in the quality characteristics of the crop.
• Potato moth massively destroys the planting of pepper and tomatoes.
• If the conditions for the growth and reproduction of potato moths are ideal, then the insect develops much faster than the vegetable crop itself.
• Larvae can very quickly destroy large plantations with young seedlings. Then they annoy adult plants. Caterpillars cause the greatest damage during the period of fruit ripening and growth.

A potato crop affected by these insects by 70-80% is considered unsuitable for consumption, since it has a low shelf life and is subject to further processing.

The good news is that today it is still possible to get rid of this harmful butterfly, but the existing methods of dealing with it do not give a one hundred percent guarantee.

The right fight against this butterfly is to use both preventive measures and measures aimed at the complete elimination of pests. Therefore, it will not be easy to deal with it.

Chemical methods

To get rid of this pest, such drugs as Lepidocide, Dendrobacillin, Entobacterin and others are used. Spraying of plants is carried out at any stage of growth and development of the fruit.

Such control measures can destroy the larvae, but not completely, as well as reduce the fertility of females. This is an effective method of dealing with it, allowing you to slow down the development and growth of the insect at all stages.

Equally effective was the use of various trap devices designed for insects of potato moths.

Agrotechnical techniques

You can fight it, taking other measures, for example, ensuring competent sowing, hilling of garden plants. Important in this process will be the use of healthy planting material and its laying to the maximum allowable depth.

To avoid damage to plants and fruits by potato moths, gardeners began to grow only early varieties of potatoes and tomatoes.

Before planting, the tubers are well inspected so that they are not damaged. Of course, this does not completely prevent the appearance of the pest, but it will significantly reduce the affected areas.

In the process of growing useful garden crops, an important role is played by weed control from the nightshade family. Most often, moth originates in their thickets, moving further to vegetable plantations, which complicates the fight against it.

Today, many countries adhere to the established quarantine rules for this pest. For example, when imported into Australia, these products are heated and treated with insecticides.

Despite such a variety of measures to combat it, potato moth is rapidly spreading throughout the world, destroying large plantings of garden crops.

Potato moth, control measures

In recent years, residents of the southern regions of the country are increasingly complaining about the death of potato crops during storage from voracious small caterpillars. Under the skin and inside the tubers are completely penetrated by meandering passages. Up to 10 larvae of different ages can be present in one tuber at a time.

This is a potato moth, or fluoridea (Phthorimaea operculella Zell). This is a highly specialized pest, its caterpillars damage many cultivated and wild plants of the nightshade family, but potato and tobacco cause especially serious damage to fluoridea.

The natural habitat of the pest is South and Central America, so fluoridea is another "hello" to our potatoes from its historical homeland.

In the hundred years that have passed since the discovery of the first foci of potato moth in the Old World, the pest settled not only in southern Europe, but also “scattered” across all continents and, despite the ongoing protective measures, it has already been registered in more than 70 countries of the world.

Today, the intensive import of potatoes and vegetables has again posed us with the threat of the spread of a dangerous pest.

Unfortunately, the spread of fluoridea is caused not only by dishonesty of suppliers of food potatoes, but also by the impossibility of effective control of quarantine services over the fields of private owners planting fields with infected tubers.

Indeed, today more than 90% of the potato areas in the country are accounted for by individual farms, and you can’t put an inspector to each private trader.

Remember how long ago the Colorado potato beetle appeared in our fields and how much effort, health, money we now have to spend annually to fight it. But the consequences of the infection of the “second bread” with potato moths on the scale of the negative consequences are comparable to the invasion of the Colorado potato beetle.

Moreover, the "roots" get the hardest, and it is precisely when all the fears seem to be behind us, the harvest is gathered and stacked in bins.

But it is here, in the repository, that troubles await us, and the loss of tubers from the voracious insect caterpillars is from 25 to 80%. In the coming years, any of us may face this insidious and very dangerous pest.

In order not to miss the appearance of potato moth and prevent its spread, you should not only know what the pest looks like, but also have basic information about its biological characteristics and habits.

Potato moth identification and developmental features

The butterfly of potato moth is a nondescript individual of small size - the wingspan is only 12-16 mm, at rest the narrow wings are folded roof-shaped.

The testicles are very small (0.4-0.8 mm), inconspicuous, they are not visible either on the tops or on the tubers of potatoes. Only by looking closely at the bottom of the leaf, more often near the veins, leaf stalks or on the stem, you can find a clutch of 1-2 pearl-white oval eggs, darkening before the birth of the caterpillar. Fertility of one female is up to 200 eggs.

Adult naked caterpillar up to 10-13 mm long. Depending on the place of feeding, it changes color from yellowish pink or dirty white (nutrition in a tuber) to yellowish green and gray-green. In the middle of the back is a longitudinal strip.The head is dark brown. The pupa is brown, 5.5-6.5 mm long, enclosed in a silver-gray silky cocoon.

Potato moth leads a rather secretive lifestyle. In the afternoon, butterflies prefer to hide under the leaves, active years begin in the late afternoon and lasts from 20:00 to 11:00 in the morning. Caterpillars feed on leaves of tobacco, potatoes, less often - leaves of other nightshade crops and weeds, potato tubers and fruits of tomatoes, eggplant.

Distinctive signs of damage to potato moths are the presence of excrement in mines of leaves and petioles, as well as on the surface and inside the passages penetrating the fruits and tubers.

By the way, due to the ability to mine leaves, fluoridea got another name - mining potato moth. The “mines” moths eaten by the larva in the leaves of different species of nightshade plants may differ slightly. Bubble-shaped, often transparent mines appear on the leaves of eggplant, tobacco, and dope.

Through their transparent surface, the caterpillars of the pest of the older ages are clearly visible. On the leaves of potatoes and tomatoes, mines are less visible, since their walls are opaque.

On the leaves of pepper, sweet mines are generally not noticeable. Moth caterpillars are able to crawl from leaf to leaf and damage neighboring plants. When the potato tops are dried, the caterpillars descend into the tubers.

In the fruits of vegetable crops, moth larvae are introduced through the peduncle, or from the top of the fruit - in the perianth. These places should be examined especially carefully, because holes and excrement of caterpillar excrement are noticeable on them.

In this case, the tuber damaged by the pest resembles a rotten sponge. The presence of fluoridea in potato tubers can be determined by the following symptoms.

On its surface, in the place of penetration of the larva and inside the passages themselves, accumulation of pest excrement, often covered with cobwebs. In the wireworm, for comparison, the larval penetration sites and passages inside the tuber remain always clean.

In this case, the tuber peel dries above them, wrinkles and settles over time, a noticeable scar forms on it. Penetrating deep into the tissues, fluoridea caterpillars eat out a network of narrow, branched passages.

Even with minor infection, tubers damaged by potato moth lose their presentation and quality, are poorly stored, and are more damaged.

Under favorable climatic conditions, the pest hibernates at the stage of an adult caterpillar and pupa in the field (under plant debris in the upper soil layer up to 5-7 cm, in tubers and the remains of stems sprinkled with soil) and in places where the crop is stored.

Possessing high ecological plasticity, the pest is able to adapt to life even in latitudes with the sum of active annual temperatures below 4000 ° C, where the average January temperature on the soil surface ranges from 0 ... -4 ° C (zone of periodic severity).

In these areas, the emergence of potato moths after wintering begins very early, at a temperature of + 8 ... 10 ° С the butterflies are already mating (the Colorado potato beetle is still “sleeping” at that time), and in subsequent generations it continues until November and even December.

But the pest reaches its maximum number in late August - early September before harvesting. In the steppe regions of the south, potato moths manage to produce an average of 3-4 generations, while summer temperatures do not play a special role here, for the insect short days (12 hours) are more important.

During the summer planting of potatoes in the south of the country, the population of plants by moths increases sharply and by the time of harvesting it can reach 75%, and the damage to tubers is 60%.

Tubers located near the soil surface up to 85-90% are especially damaged. In those lying at a depth of 5-10 cm, 7-8% are infected with the pest, and tubers deeper than 10 cm are almost not damaged.

Particular attention should be paid to the weed plants of the nightshade family (dope, henbane, nightshade, physalis, nikandra, etc.), growing in the vicinity of the garden, field. Wild Solanaceae are the natural reserves of potato moth.

Control measures

In most parts of the country, potato fluoridea is a danger solely as a pest of stockpiles. But this does not mean at all that getting rid of the pest is simple. The fluoridea in our country do not have natural enemies. Of the agricultural measures, the following are recommended.

We plant potatoes only with pest-free, healthy tubers and to a depth of at least 15 cm. After irrigation, potato bushes should be regularly spudded so that young tubers are under a soil layer of at least 5 cm.

Crop and destroy weeds regularly. Dig potatoes in the fluoridea-infected field at the beginning of yellowing the tops, not allowing it to dry, or 5-7 days before harvesting the tops to be cut and burned.

Butterflies of potato moths have a striking sense of smell, they smell potato tubers even under cover from burlap by their smell and are able to populate eggs that have not been taken out of the field with eggs during the day.

Therefore, we harvest from the infected field in an extremely short time, and dug out tubers, including substandard and small ones, on the same day we take them out of the field.

After harvesting the field, the vacated field should be traced or (in autumn) plowed with a turnover of the formation to a depth of 2025 cm. When growing early potatoes, tubers are practically not damaged by the pest.

For the chemical control of potato moth, the same insecticides are used as against the Colorado potato beetle: Arrivo, Danadim, Decis, Zolon, Tsimbush, Sherpa, etc.

Processing should be carried out immediately after the detection of pest butterflies, without waiting for the appearance of caterpillars. The interval between treatments is 10-15 days. In the fields of summer planting potatoes, the number of potato moths at the end of summer reaches a maximum.

Before digging up tubers with the continued high summer activity of butterflies and the development of caterpillars during this period, it is better to use biological preparations bitoxibacillin and lepidocide (flow rate 3-4 l / ha) with an interval of 6-8 days.

Protecting potato tubers in storage

The development activity and the harmfulness of potato moth on potato tubers depend largely on the storage mode.

In the ontogenesis of this insect, there is no diapause under favorable conditions (storage of tubers at t + 10 ° С and above), the pest poses a serious threat, as it continues to develop in the repository and is able to produce another 1-3 generations.

In the private sector, especially in the warm autumn, it is very difficult to maintain such a temperature in the storehouse. In this case, potatoes reliably protect the biological product lepidocide or bitoxibacillin.

Immediately on the day of harvesting, the tubers are immersed in a 1% suspension of the preparation for 4-5 minutes or treated from a backpack sprayer (0.3 and 0.5 l of the preparation per ton of potato, respectively, water consumption -80 l / t). Then the tubers are dried and stored.

Biological products provide a high degree of protection of potatoes only in a warm storage or in a food warehouse (safety up to 80-100%) when the storage temperature is in the range + 10 ... 24 ° С.

Potato moth and measures to combat it

Another “potato eater” is potato moth. This is a thermophilic insect. Despite this moth, devouring potatoes can calmly develop not only in the summer. It can be found in winter in storage, where the ambient temperature exceeds the mark of + 10 ° C. The pest is able to adapt easily in temperate latitudes.

Under natural field conditions, the moth overwinter in two stages. She can winter in the form of a caterpillar, as well as in the form of a chrysalis. It can be found in various residues of vegetation or in the upper layers of the soil.

In vegetable stores, she can live in all her stages of development. This harmful insect can have several generations. And their number, from two to eight, can directly depend on the climate.

Potato moth caterpillars damage potato plants and tubers. During the growing season, caterpillars dig in leaves, stems and tubers laying their eggs there. In vegetable stores, potato moth tries to lay eggs on the most tender areas, namely on the eyes of potato tubers.

Emerging young caterpillars instantly make holes in them through which harmful microorganisms penetrate into the tubers, which are pathogens and cause the development of wet and dry rot.

Control measures

Not only potatoes suffer from potato moths. The pest likes to settle on tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, tobacco and other plants of the nightshade family. In those places where this troglodyte pest was discovered, it is necessary to use seed material of exceptional quality and health.

It is also necessary to make a deep digging of the soil twice a year: in spring and autumn.

Unable to provide optimal storage conditions for potatoes at low temperatures, it is necessary to protect it with biological products: lepidocide or bitoxy-bacillin.

At the time of harvesting the potato, its tubers should be immersed in a 1% solution of these preparations (100 grams per 10 liters of water) for about 5 minutes. Then the tubers are dried and only after that they can be stored in the cellar.

Additional treatment against the pest is carried out somewhere in late August.This will prevent the penetration of the potato tuber moth caterpillars.

What you need to do to combat fluoridea

Now potato moth gardeners will not surprise you. This terrible pest gradually "develops" our gardens.

What needs to be done in this situation? Selectively take several dozens of the most affected tubers and cut them into several slices before using them for food and carefully examine the tracks of the caterpillars: whether they were preserved and alive.

Sort the tubers, choosing the least damaged ones for planting. Before planting tubers, it is better not to germinate. But to wake them up, put them on warming or light germination so that the sprouts are no more than 2-3 cm long.

And immediately before planting, treat them with one of the drugs: Matador, Matador Goand, Matador Super, Nuprid, Tirana, Masterpiece.

Potatoes need to be planted deeper - up to 15-17 cm, so that the small moth larvae do not reach the tubers and infect them. Potatoes for this also need to be spud. In addition, during the processing of potatoes against the Colorado potato beetle, butterflies and caterpillars of potato moths are destroyed.

In no case should you leave the potatoes in sheds or under sheds, otherwise it may be infected with flying moth butterflies.

Potato moth - we study and fight

When gardening potatoes, many gardeners have come across such an unpleasant pest insect as potato moth. Initially, this small insect appeared in hot countries, and subsequently spread throughout the middle zone of Russia.

Potato moth lays numerous eggs, from which caterpillars emerge that destroy root crops during storage.

Microscopic caterpillars of potato moth live inside root crops, gradually destroying the entire crop. We will tell you about effective prevention against this pest and talk in more detail how the fight against potato moths occurs.

Short description of the insect

Potato moth is painted gray with dark spots, which with closed wings form two distinct dark bands. The life expectancy of this insect in the summer is not more than a month.

Over its life, potato moth lays up to tens of thousands of eggs, from which gluttonous caterpillars emerge. Caterpillars immediately crawl into tubers, the pulp of which they feed and grow rapidly.

The complexity of pest control is due to insect nocturnal activity. In the afternoon, potato moth hides in the foliage. Therefore, it is simply difficult for many gardeners to notice them on the site and determine the defeat of potatoes by this pest.

Potato moth multiplies rapidly, giving up to four generations of new pests in life. Under suitable conditions, this insect can quickly spread over the site and can completely destroy the crop.

Potato moth damages bushes, destroys leaves and weakens plants. Subsequently, the larvae crawl into the forming root crops, quickly eating away all the flesh. In this case, there is a decrease in the quality of the used seed material.

A potato tuber, in which several such caterpillars live at the same time, looks like a small sponge with a cut core. With the active reproduction of potato moth, the pace of development of this pest exceeds the growth rate of the feed crop. As a result, such a crop is destroyed on the vine.

It should be remembered that the effectiveness of combating this pest directly depends on the reaction rate of the gardener to the appearance of potato moths. If you delay the treatment, the subsequent application of chemicals will not give any tangible result, and the growing season of vegetables will be completely lost.

Pest Control

It must be said that at present, 100% effective means of control have not been developed. The vegetable grower needs an integrated approach, prevention, preventive measures. Only in this way can he cope with this rather dangerous and unpleasant pest.

Excellent results in the fight against this pest insect show means made on the basis of various bacteria. Such funds include Lepidocide, Dendrobacillin, Ethnobacterin and others. The use of such funds is not difficult.

A disinfecting effect was also found in a light solution of methyl bromide. This solution is used for short-term processing of tubers that are stored.

It is only necessary to observe some caution when processing potato methyl bromide solution, fully complying with the requirements of the instructions for this agrochemical.

Folk ways of struggle

Hilling bushes. The gardener needs to use not only various chemicals, but also apply folk methods tested by time.

So, for example, effective prevention from this insect consists in competent crop rotation, in which potatoes need to be planted in those areas where this vegetable, tomatoes and nightshade were not previously grown.

It is also recommended that the gardener regularly perform hilling of potato bushes, which will protect the tubers from the penetration of moth larvae into them. Also remember to bookmark the storage of healthy tubers. Before directly laying the grown crop for storage, it should be treated with appropriate agrochemicals.

You can radically solve the problem with this pest by growing early potato varieties on the site. Potato moth is thermophilic, so the first insects appear only with the onset of heat.

If the gardener manages to grow and harvest early potatoes by this time, then he will be completely spared from any difficulties with this insect.

Trap. Experienced growers also recommend performing special traps. You can attract butterflies of potato moth with sweet syrup and slices of various fruits.

As a preventative measure, we can also recommend that you pre-heat the seed. The larvae present in the tubers die at 40 degrees. You will need to do this by warming the potatoes for several hours.

Weed removal. Remember that the natural habitat of such a moth are various wild-growing nightshade.Therefore, the gardener must necessarily remove from the plot such wild solanaceous crops, and control the number of weeds in the beds.

Often, such weeds are carriers of this insect pest. Therefore, you will need to regularly weed the beds, which will increase yield and protect plantings from pests.

Potato moth is a common pest, the larvae of which are able to destroy young leaves and root crops. The fight against this pest should be comprehensive.

Remember also the need for appropriate crop rotation on the plot and the use of high-quality, non-infected seed.

Fluoridea: description and methods of struggle

Scientifically, potato moths are called fluoridea. It looks like an ordinary small moth, but the damage to agriculture is colossal, as the larvae eat up the entire crop. She looks rather unattractive, she is grayish-dirty with black dots.

The length of the insect is only 5-6 mm, because of which it is immediately possible not to consider the parasite. With his inconspicuous, in his opinion, color, he disguises himself, and visually you will not immediately see that it is a moth.

Breeding conditions

Over its entire short life, potato moth goes through several stages:

1. Butterfly.
2. Egg.
3. Larva.
4. Dolly.

The whole life cycle takes up to 30 days in the summer and up to 4 months in the winter. In the garden, this butterfly is difficult to notice right away, since it has an activity period early in the morning and after sunset.

Potato moth often gets to the storage warehouse along with vegetables, where there are all favorable conditions for its propagation. Positive temperature conditions, good ventilation and moderate humidity. But quite often the insect has a great winter under the cover of fallen leaves. During the winter, it multiplies, and in the spring it again falls into the ground with planting.

In warmer climates, the butterfly produces up to 3 generations per season. Adult fluoridea does not live more than 2 weeks, but during this time it mates and lays eggs. It is also dangerous because it lays its eggs almost everywhere, both on the ground, and on vegetables, and indoors.

Only a low temperature regime of up to -4 degrees below zero can stop its reproduction. More than 300 eggs are laid out in one cycle. Since the moth develops faster than the plant grows, it can cause harm even at the first shoots.

Nutrition and lifestyle

The mole is most harmful in the caterpillar stage. Since it eats almost the entire plant: stems, leaves, fruits and tubers. Then it turns into a chrysalis and flies out already by a butterfly. In the fruits themselves, leaves well-groomed passages with the remains of their life.

A spider web appears on the leaves, and the sharpened areas begin to rot, as harmful microorganisms form in them. Since the activity of the moth falls at night, then it has a lot of enemies, almost everyone eats it: birds, and other insects, and even bats.

Danger and harm

The biggest danger of the insect is its versatility in reproduction and in the fact that it falls into the storage and cellar with the harvest of fields and beds, and the harm and danger is as follows:

• It weakens the leaves and trunks of plants, as a result of which it begins to grow poorly.
• It spoils potato tubers, leaving passages on them that begin to rot.
• A huge decrease in planting material.
• Leads to the death of young bushes planting eggplant, tomato and pepper, which do not have time to grow under the attack of a moth.

Potatoes affected by this pest, more than 70% of the total crop becomes unsuitable for eating. Potatoes can only be processed.

How to fight?

Unfortunately, a method that eliminates 100% potato moths at a time has not been found today. It is necessary to deal with it comprehensively, and pay special attention to preventive measures. If an insect is found in a summer cottage, it is necessary to fight it immediately. There are several ways to destroy it.

Chemistry allows not only to destroy adults, but not to allow larvae to turn into a caterpillar and pupate. To prevent moths from entering the storehouse, vegetables themselves are also processed.

Traps. This method is also very popular, since strong chemical treatment can be avoided, but it is not always better. A trap is a pheromone for males, which are then destroyed, and the females lay empty eggs and the new generation will no longer be born.

Quarantine measures. In areas with an increased risk of insect formation, quarantine measures are introduced at the state level. Specialists carry out a set of measures to destroy the pest.

Pay special attention to the cellar for storage. If detected, it must be treated with chemicals. Special smoke bombs for the cellar are also for sale.

Preventive control methods

Particular attention should be paid to preventive measures, since their observance will exclude the appearance of a potato butterfly moth in the area:

The implementation of preventive measures and timely control will ensure a good harvest of nightshade crops.

Eradication of potato moth

Are there wormy tomatoes? This question will be considered absurd by any our gardener or gardener, regardless of whether he grows them or not. And it will be wrong!

This pest is relatively new to our gardens - ten years ago they practically did not hear anything about it. A small thermophilic insect came to us from Central and South America, which is its historical homeland.

Currently, the appearance of potato moths has been recorded in seventy countries of the world and the “sphere of influence” continues to expand.

The pest is able to develop not only in the summer, on plantings, but also during the storage of potatoes, if the temperature does not fall below +10 ° C. Fluoridea is especially harmful in the southern regions of the country.But, as practice has shown, moths easily adapt in our temperate latitudes, wintering in warm potato storages.

The butterfly of potato moth is rather small, with a wingspan of 1.2 - 1.6 cm. The front wings are gray-brown with yellow scales and brown strokes. Back - with a fringe and the involved external edges. The eggs are oval, up to 0.8 mm long, white, yellow or orange, depending on the stage of development.

Eggs develop from three days to two weeks. Caterpillars are bare, with small setae, reaching a length of no more than a centimeter. They have a grayish-green or yellowish-pink color with a longitudinal stripe on the back. Brown pupae are covered with a silver cocoon.

Moth butterflies smell potatoes well and have the ability to look for tubers even under shelters from burlap. Often they manage to populate their eggs with potatoes that have not been taken out of the field, only within a day.

The life expectancy of one generation of potato moth varies with temperature and can range from a month to three and a half. During this time, the caterpillar is able to completely eat more than one potato tuber.

Potato damaged by it significantly reduces productivity, its marketable and seed qualities deteriorate. During storage, the tubers rot and infect their healthy neighbors.

Signs of damage to potato moths:

• “Mining” of stems and leaves;
• narrow wormhole passages under the peel and inside the potato tubers, in the pulp of tomatoes and eggplant; the presence of caterpillar excrement in these moves;
• the death of the tops or stems above the place where the damage occurred;
• braiding leaves and stems with cobwebs;
• dry or wet rot that forms in damaged tissues.

For a successful fight against potato moth, a whole range of preventive and extermination measures is required:

Potato moth, as an overseas guest, has no natural enemies in us that would help in the fight against it and restrain its spread. Therefore, the introduction of quarantine in places where butterflies or caterpillars of fluoridea appear is justified and necessary.

Tubers and fruits affected by moths can only be used for food purposes, and all plant debris must be carefully destroyed.