Potato moth – control measures in the garden, in the cellar during storage
Potato moth – developmental stages and lifestyle
Treatment of stored potato tubers with methyl bromide disinfectant solution. This type of treatment allows you to fight against insects that reproduce in the autumn-winter period.
White color (darken with growing up),
You should start fighting this fruit moth ahead of time:
As you can see, methods of controlling potato moth include both agronomic and chemical measures.
Many people believe that moths are found only in living rooms, but fighting moths in the kitchen is no less exhausting. Grain (food, kitchen) moth has a silvery-white color and lives in cereals – wheat, rye, barley, etc. In addition, it can also spoil dried fruits and berries, nuts and seeds.
Washing at temperatures over 40-45 ° С
In other words, depending on the habitat and the food consumed, the methods of dealing with moths also differ.
: Potato pest
There is another option for processing potatoes, where a mole appeared – a 1% solution of bacterial preparations (lepidocid, dendrobacillin or bitoxibacillin). For 150 liters of water, you will need about 1 liter of such a solution. The processing is the same – the potatoes must be dipped in the resulting mixture for 15–20 minutes.
So how can we determine that the potato moth has settled in our garden? Only after a careful inspection of the plants. The first thing that catches your eye is the presence of excrement on the stem, leaves, and fruits.
Potato moth (Phthorimaea operculella Zell) is a dangerous quarantine pest that can cause significant damage to nightshade crops such as potatoes, eggplants, tomatoes, tobacco, and peppers. The territories where the moth settled is huge. Today she lives in more than 70 countries around the world. And here in the Kuban it was first noticed a long time ago – 1981. Why is potato moth dangerous to us, gardeners? The one that can destroy all the potatoes in the cellar. Here, let’s talk about what the potato moth is, measures to combat it.
The black weevil damages over 130 plant species.
Length from 0,7 to 0,9 mm,
Fighting potato moths in the garden
Spray trees with insecticide before flowering.
The tomato moth, which affects the culture of tomato, eggplant, potato, pepper, looks like a potato moth. It is an extremely prolific insect with high adaptability.
Unlike room moths, it is impossible to fight food moths simply by spraying the food with chemicals (after all, then the poison will get into the food, which is unacceptable). That is why the fight against moths in foods is often protracted and requires the complete elimination of contaminated food supplies.
Processing of clothes with aerosol insecticides.
- The greatest financial damage and psychological discomfort is caused by the indoor moth, which must be dealt with in a comprehensive manner and especially carefully. This general name refers to several different types of insects: wardrobe, fur coat, furniture. These butterflies come in different shades of yellow and live in the folds of clothes and the joints of furniture.
- Biological products have a short shelf life – 1–2 years.
- Caterpillars penetrate into tomatoes, eggplants, peppers through the stalk or from the opposite end of the fruit, where the flower was. And in potato tubers – through the eyes, the place of attachment of the stolon or minor damage, cracks.
The countries of Central and South America are the birthplace of the potato moth. How she looks like? This is a very small, inconspicuous, nondescript butterfly. The wingspan of the potato moth is slightly more than a centimeter – only 12-16 mm. The forewings are gray in color, they have large dots, stripes, and the hindwings are monochromatic with uneven double edges.
How to deal with potato moths in the cellar
Bean weevil, a pest that loves legumes very much. How to deal with the bean weevil, read this article.
Width – 0,40-0,50 mm.
Hang pheromone traps around the garden to control the presence and quantity of apple moths.
Control measures for tomato moth:
You need to start dealing with cereal moths with an inventory of products.
Preventive control of moths in the house includes ventilating in the fresh air and drying things in the sun, keeping clothes only in a clean state, periodically cleaning and washing furniture, including disinfectants.
The dressing moth is omnivorous – it feeds on wool, silk and plant foods. In other words, the clothes moth can feed on carpets, rugs, upholstery, grain, cereals, flour, bread.
: чешуекрылые-Lepidoptera
To sustain the entire potato crop in a bio-solution is a laborious operation; rather, it will be up to those who grow potatoes in small volumes for themselves. Therefore, it is advisable to pay more attention to preventive measures.
In vegetables, potato tubers, there can be up to 6 larvae at the same time, but even one is enough to ruin the whole fruit.
During the entire period of its existence, the potato moth goes through several stages of development – a butterfly, an egg, a larva, a pupa.
Fragrant woodworm butterflies have a completely nondescript color.
- The size of an adult caterpillar varies from 10 to 15 mm, and a pronounced longitudinal stripe can be found on the back.
- Collect and destroy infected leaves in time.
- Insulation and disinfection of greenhouses
- Clumps of grains stuck together, gray bloom and cobwebs indicate that the moth has already been here. You can get rid of the larvae by thoroughly warming the cereal in the oven or leaving it in the freezer for several days, but it is still better to discard the spoiled product.
The fur coat moth prefers fur, wool, felt, felt, and can also feed on feathers and down.
Potato moth (Phthorimaea operculella)
FamilyIn addition, you should inspect the cellar itself or other storage location. If there are traces of potato moths, then the room and container must be disinfected with quicklime whitewashing or fumigants (means with which rooms are fumigated). Experts recommend using a “Gamma” or “FAS” smoke bomb for the cellar against potato moths.
Large losses from potato moths are suffered mainly by potato growers. For this reason, it is important to prevent the pest from entering the potato by taking regular preventive measures.The entire development cycle takes 22–30 days in summer, while in winter the same process takes much longer – 2–4 months.
An excellent result is given by preventive measures: proper storage of seeds, pre-sowing treatment of tomatoes and potatoes, as well as laying tubers to the maximum depth.Often, the potato moth is compared to the Colorado potato beetle in terms of the degree of damage to plants. Both the fluorimea butterfly and the caterpillar cause significant damage to garden plants by damaging leaves and making winding passages in tomatoes and eggplants. Potato tubers most often suffer from the pest during the winter storage period, since accumulations of excrement appear on the upper layers of the tubers over time, and it is strictly forbidden to eat such potatoes.
Attract the natural enemies of the apple moth to the gardens – the braconid wasp.
Regular weed control in the open field;
Fight moths in the kitchen better than planned. Kitchen furniture should be washed with soapy water, rubbed with vinegar and ventilated well. Throw away all contaminated foods. And in the future, pay attention to the quality and volume of purchased food, do not let the products “stagnate”
One of the oldest treatments for moths and moth control is naphthalene, but its effectiveness is somewhat exaggerated. The naphthalene balls really scare off adult moths, but they are completely useless against larvae. At the same time, it is considered a carcinogen and can be more dangerous to human health than a mole – for apartment sanitation.
It is interesting
: Moth-Gelechiidae
Spraying of infected potatoes in the cellar with a solution of the microbiopreparation “Entobacterin” will significantly reduce crop losses. It is effective against flying insects, that is, against the potato moth butterfly, which, after processing the premises, will lose activity and will not be able to lay eggs in tubers.Firstly, potatoes must either be planted deeper than usual, or hilled more often and higher – the height of the soil layer above the tubers should be at least 15 cm, since it has been noticed that most often the pest is introduced into tubers that are close to the surface of the earth.
In the garden, potato moths are difficult to spot. This is not the Colorado potato beetle, which at various stages of development can be easily seen on potato bushes at any time of the day. The potato moth becomes active early in the morning, before sunrise, or late in the evening, after sunset.
In order for measures to combat potato moths to bring a positive effect, it is necessary to perform
Fight against indoor moth species – clothes, fur coat, furniture
The unique endurance of fluorimea allows it to remain in potato tubers even when the temperature drops to -2 degrees. Experienced gardeners claim that by using damaged potato tubers as seeds in spring, we help moths survive.
If necessary, use additional chemicals.
The use of special traps as indicators of the appearance of a tomato moth;
Feedback
It is always better to prevent the appearance of a moth in an apartment than to fight it later.
The fur coat moth, which has settled in the fur, does not so much eat it as it gnaws at the roots when moving (this is done by the caterpillars of the moth). That is why the fur coat moth can be recognized by the numerous fur hairs that dot the space under the fur coat.
Quarantine pest in the southern steppe of Russia. Damages potatoes, especially tubers in storage, tobacco, eggplant, tomatoes, datura, nightshade and other cultivated and weedy nightshades. The butterfly is 12-16 mm in size, the front wings are broad-lanceolate, brown-gray, with a dark inner edge, yellow scales and dark brown strokes; hind wings with notch along outer margin, fringe longer than wing width; in males, anterior margin with tassel of long hairs reaching middle of wing.
By the way, keep in mind that at a temperature of 3-5 ° C this pest does not develop, it dies, so it is better to store the crop in a cellar under such conditions.Secondly, the potatoes should be harvested before the tops are dry. 1-2 weeks before harvesting, the green mass is mowed, immediately removed from the field so that the caterpillars do not penetrate.
But walk along the edge of the potato field during the day, disturb the bushes. If the site is infected with potato moth, then you will see how butterflies, very similar to the usual clothes moth, fly over the landings and, flying 2-3 m, sit on the leaves, stems, ground, merge with the background, become immediately, as it were, invisible from – for its small size.
A series of sequential actions
- For nightshade crops, the potato moth causes the following troubles:
- “For a month, while the house was empty, a moth appeared in the kitchen. And how to deal with this infection? Caterpillars crawl in the corners, butterflies fly under the ceiling, and there they have love. Without thinking twice, I did a general cleaning, threw out everything that still remained from the products. I wiped the furniture with vinegar just in case. And it suddenly worked! I didn’t think that folk recipes are so helpful ”
It is possible to deal with moths already existing in the house not only by mechanical cleaning and washing, but also by using chemicals. They can be conditionally subdivided into contact and fumigation.
Furniture moth is very similar to clothes moth, but it is more dangerous, multiplies faster and damages a wider range of materials. She lives in upholstered furniture, on the seamy side of sofas and chairs, in cupboards and on bookshelves. Furniture moth is unpretentious and can also parasitize on semi-synthetic products.
The egg is 0,8 mm in size, oval, pearl white. Caterpillar 8-10 mm long, yellow-orange or gray-green with a longitudinal stripe in the middle of the back and small dark scutes along the body; chest plate black, anal yellow. Pupa 5-6,5 mm, brown, with a small cremaster and bristles at the end of the abdomen, located in a silky silvery-gray cocoon.
At the moment, in Russia, the potato moth most often spoils the potato crop. Control measures for this insect are not as simple as it might seem.
Thirdly, if you notice traces of a pest in your field, then you should immediately treat the entire area using chemicals. The same remedies are used for potato moths as for the Colorado potato beetle – for example, fastak, decis. Potatoes can be eaten only 20 days after processing.
The life of a pest in the butterfly stage is approximately 3 weeks. During this time, she manages to lay 50-200 eggs on the leaves from below, on the stems, potato tubers, fruits of other nightshade plants.
Significant weakening of plant bushes due to damage or complete destruction of leaves;
“Last year we were late in processing the trees in the garden. It seems that they knew about the apple moth and how to deal with it, but they missed the moment, and the harvest turned out to be small and beaten. But in this they used the fungicide and hung the traps, so here and there there were local cobwebs, but they could be easily collected with your hands or with equipment! “
The use of biological products (Boverin, Batsiturin), and, if necessary, chemicals, for example, Aktara, Aktellik, Fufanon.
Contact agents are insecticidal solutions or aerosols that must be applied to the affected surface. Caterpillars of moths, eating and even just crawling on things processed in this way, will soon die.
Kitchen moth and ways to get rid of it
Note
Caterpillars of older instars and pupae in cocoons overwinter in natural conditions. In potato storages at 15 ° C and higher, the development of the pest continues on potato tubers in winter. In the spring, in the case of planting tubers with eggs laid on them or inhabited by caterpillars or pupae, the pest again enters the field.
Plant healthy seeds to the correct depth.Fourthly, the dug tubers should be removed from the field as soon as possible, since just a couple of hours is enough for the butterflies to lay eggs and ruin the harvest.
In an egg, the larva of a potato moth – a caterpillar – matures in 5–15 days. This is the most dangerous stage of pest development from the point of view of gardeners, since it is the caterpillars that cause the greatest damage to potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, and other vegetables, damaging tubers, fruits, stems, and leaves.
In autumn and spring, plowing of those plots of land that have been affected by the pest should be carried out. The plowing depth must be at least 30 cm;
Decrease in the quality and volume of the crop;
Potato moth control methods
The chestnut miner moth is a parasite of the horse chestnut and sometimes maple. Having a very small number of natural enemies, it is extremely dangerous for all types of these trees.
One of the most dangerous pests of potatoes is the potato moth, the control measures for which must be carried out both during the cultivation of the potato and during its storage. The potato moth is a small gray-brown insect whose larvae gnaw the winding back doors inside the tubers.
- Fumigation agents for moth control are tablets and plates that are placed in areas where moths may inhabit. While slowly evaporating, they also kill pests.
- Almost all moths that can be seen flying around the apartment are completely harmless males. They do not have a mouth apparatus, that is, they do not feed and cannot harm.
- Butterflies fly out in the south of Russia in May. Butterflies fly at night, from sunset to sunrise, and 1-2 hours after sunrise. A day after mating, females lay eggs, placing them from below on leaves, on stems, soil, naked potato tubers one by one or in small heaps. For 2-16 days, one female is able to lay up to 300 eggs.
- Do not start planting potatoes – more often huddle it higher.
Fighting potato moths, of course, will add hassle to gardeners. But your efforts will not be in vain – you will save the harvest.
How to get rid of tomato moth
The larva (caterpillar) of the potato moth usually has a yellow-pink or slightly greenish color, the body length is from 1 to 1,3 cm. The life span of the caterpillar is 10–48 days, during which time it molts four times.
Carefully select only healthy potatoes for sowing and warm it up at a temperature of 12-17 ° C;
- Complete loss of yield with active reproduction of moths;
- Each type of moth has its own specific qualities and leads a unique way of life for it. It is not surprising that measures that are effective, for example, in the fight against fur moth, will not give the expected result against furniture moth. Therefore, each species requires its own approach and a competent combination of methods and preparations.
- You need to deal with potato moths in a comprehensive and systematic way:
Chestnut miner moth
The main danger is the larvae of moths, which eat clothes and furniture, as well as females that lay eggs.
Depending on the temperature conditions, after 3-15 days, caterpillars are born from the eggs, gnaw under the epidermis of a leaf, a young shoot or the skin of a young tuber, where they feed, gnawing winding mines and passages filled with excrement in them. On average, after 11-14 days of feeding, the caterpillars leave mines, weave cocoons between dried leaves, in cracks in the soil, plant debris, between tubers in storages and other secluded places, where they pupate. After 7-12 days, butterflies fly out of the pupae, lay eggs and give rise to the development of a new generation.
Destroy the tops in time before harvesting if moths are found in the field.
Before you put the crop for storage, if you notice the presence of potato moths in your area, you need to process the tubers. How to treat potatoes from potato moths? There are various ready-made preparations, as well as those that are easy to prepare by yourself by combining several ingredients.
Apple moth
It enters the pupa stage on plants or soil, cracks in walls or floors, if it gets into a storage or cellar.
Plant potatoes in the soil to the maximum depth and in the future you should huddle and, if necessary, water the beds;
Death of young shoots of tomatoes and bell peppers.
- Outwardly, the insect is a small butterfly with a wingspan of 12 to 17 mm and long antennae, characteristic of the family of the concave moth. The color of the front wings is gray with a dark stripe and dots around it, the hind ones are gray with a yellow fringe. Life expectancy can vary from a few days to several weeks. It is quite difficult to notice the potato moth, since it has a pronounced protective color, merging with the general background of the plants. Fluorimea is fertile and gives 3-5 generations per year under natural conditions, and in places where potatoes are stored makes an additional 2-4 clutches eggs.
- The caterpillar of the chestnut moth gnaws winding passages in the leaves of the tree – mines. As it develops, it sheds, leaving a rounded dark spot at the site of molting. Before becoming an adult insect, it is able to destroy up to 90% of the leaves of a tree!
- Plant only healthy tubers at the maximum permissible depth, preheating them;
- “I never thought that a moth is such a tenacious insect and it is so difficult to fight it! It seems that I reconsidered everything, washed it and ventilated it – all the same, they periodically appear from somewhere. I bought special records, but they don’t seem to work. Now I have been advised a can of Armolya, but I am afraid that it will not be poisonous. “
- You can fight moths with preventive and remedial measures. Preventive measures to combat moths in an apartment are aimed at preventing the very possibility of the appearance of moths, and liquidation measures are designed to get rid of already existing insects.
In the south of Russia, the potato moth naturally develops in five generations, which are superimposed on each other, therefore, adults are observed almost continuously, from May to November, with the highest abundance in September-October.
Sort the potatoes in the cellar more often to remove infected tubers.
The remedy for potato moth is a mixture of two biological drugs: lepidocide and planriz. The first drug is just needed to combat this pest, and the second is to prevent fungal diseases.
The caterpillar or pupa spends winter in the soil close to the surface or under abandoned plant remains. And in the spring, gray butterflies fly out of the overwintered pupae.
Remove all nightshade weeds before harvesting to avoid possible moth spread;
Caterpillars and larvae
To combat the potato pest, you need patience and using existing methods that have been tested by time and experience.
Caterpillars and larvae easily endure winter in the upper soil layer, after which the already pupated butterflies fly out in the spring and end their activity at the end of October. The number of eggs in one clutch reaches up to 200, while almost all of them pupate and become adult insects.
- Control measures against chestnut miner moths include the use of a trichogramma parasite parasitizing moth larvae, tree feeding and soil improvement, as well as the introduction of drugs based on Imidacloprid into the vessels of the tree – with it the leaves of the tree become poisonous to the moth.
- Periodically huddle and warm up the planting;
- Room moth eradication measures include the following:
Protection measures.
What harm does potato moth cause to plants?
Treat storage facilities, cellar, infected tubers every 10-12 days with the recommended drugs.
The solution is quite simple to prepare. The amount of the finished solution depends on the size of your crop.
Potato moths of any developmental stage can be found in the garden throughout the season, from early spring to late autumn. And after laying, for example, infected potatoes for storage, under favorable conditions, the development of the pest also continues in winter.
- The crop that you have already harvested should not be left on the open ground, since fluorimea has a sensitive sense of smell and can detect potatoes by smell;
- Only an integrated approach will allow you to get rid of fluorimea for a long time. However, you should not hope for one hundred percent result, since it is almost impossible to get rid of moths forever.
- Potato moth eggs have the following external features:
- Apple moth is an extremely dangerous pest of fruit trees, and not only apple trees. Apricots, plums, pears, cherries and other trees also suffer from it.
How to deal?
Mow and destroy the tops in advance;
Currently, there are many drugs for moths and to combat it. Aerosols Raptor “Protection against moths”, Mosquitall (Mosquitol) and “Armol Expert” are effective against both butterflies and moth larvae.
Shaking out clothes and subsequent mechanical destruction of the falling out larvae
- Prevention of the introduction and spread of the pest to new areas, compliance with quarantine rules. Fumigation of potato tubers before planting. Destruction of nightshade weeds, hilling bushes that do not allow outcropping of tubers, harvesting before the tops dry out and immediate removal from the field, destruction of plant residues and deep plowing of the soil; if possible, refusal from summer planting of potatoes. In case of detection of summer butterflies and damage to plants, spraying with insecticides.
- These actions will protect the crop from potato moths.
In 100 liters of water, you need to add 2 liters of lepidocide + 0,5 liters of planriz. Potatoes are immediately dipped into the resulting mixture (it is not recommended to store it) for 5-10 minutes. Then the tubers are dried.
Caterpillars of the potato moth are distinguished by their special vitality. Potato tubers freeze when the temperature drops to -1 ° C, but the pest will survive at this temperature.
Treat the field with chemicals 20 days before harvest.
Prevention
The most popular methods of struggle are the following:
Oval shape,The apple moth butterfly is light gray, almost white, with numerous white specks on the wings; the caterpillar is greenish with two rows of black dots. It is the caterpillars that entwine the leaves of trees with cobwebs and destroy the foliage cleanly on individual branches. With a serious injury, a small tree may be left without any vegetative parts at all.Process the harvested potatoes with special agents (Dendrobacillin, Entobacterin, Lepidocid) and store at a temperature of 3-5 ° C.
- “Morimol”, “Mittoks”, “Supromit”, “Foxid” – solutions for the protection of upholstered furniture and carpets. “Antimol” and “Desmol” are plates against moth butterflies.
- Warming clothes in the sun on hot days
- People have been fighting moths for a very long time, but neither high-tech means nor the achievements of the chemical industry can completely get rid of it. The reason for such survivability lies in the variety of moth species and the need to take into account the characteristics of each of them in the fight.
- Type of pest
- After such processing, the crop can be safely stored. It will be suitable for eating in 2-3 days. By the way, such biological treatment will be an excellent prophylaxis before planting potatoes.
- The best conditions for moths will be a temperature of + 22–26 ° С with an air humidity of no more than 80%. If the air warms up above + 36 ° C or cools down below -4 ° C, then the insect will die, and it does not matter at what stage of its development it will be.
Taking precautions against potato moths can increase yields and improve the quality of your vegetables.
The use of preparations containing bacteria of the Bacillus thuringiensis species (Entobacterin, Bitoxibacillin, Dendrobacillin, Lepidocid). Regular treatment with these preparations contributes to the death of the larvae of the potato moth, as well as to a decrease in the reproductive function of female insects and the suspension of active growth.
