2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
The potato aphid, despite its name, damages almost all indoor crops. As a rule, this pest penetrates into greenhouses on the inhabited planting material of parsley and celery. And when the planting of cucumbers and a number of other vegetable crops begins in January-February, it will slowly begin to move from parsley and celery to these crops. The harmfulness of the potato aphid lies not only in reducing the amount of the crop, but also in the fact that it is a carrier of all kinds of viral diseases of vegetation, including the seedless virus
Meet the pest
The potato aphid is endowed with an elongated oval body. As for the size of this pest, the average length of wingless individuals is about 2 - 2, 3 mm, and of winged ones - 2, 3 - 3 mm. The wingless aphid has a glossy, olive-greenish body. And the slightly pigmented winged individuals are endowed with light brown heads and breasts. The tips of the tubules and segments are brownish, and there are no patterns on the dorsal surface of the abdomen. In highly pigmented forms, antennae are longer than body length. The front parts of their bodies are brownish, the first three segments of the antennae are rather light in color, and all the rest are slightly darker. Long light brownish or light-colored tubes protrude beyond the tips of the bodies. And endowed with blunt tops, wide xiphoid tails are equipped with three to four hairs on each side.
An incomplete cycle type of development is characteristic of the common potato aphid. The wintering of wingless virgin females takes place mainly on weeds in greenhouses.
The potato aphid was first described as a species by Johann Heinrich Kaltenbach, a German entomologist. This species has forms and subspecies differing in the development cycle, and it can also differ in fodder plants and the presence of wings in females. In general, these pests are close to the melon aphid in their biological parameters.
Potato aphids can develop without the obligatory change of host plants on a huge amount of herbaceous vegetation: on buttercups, foxglove, potatoes and many others. The initial colonization of plantings by this pest is at first almost imperceptible. As a rule, colonies are deployed first on the lower sides of the leaves, gradually moving to their upper sides and populating young shoots.
On the leaves affected by potato aphids, numerous chlorotic spots are gradually formed, the leaves themselves can curl, and the flowers are characterized by rather uneven curliness.
How to fight
Seed potato plantings should be isolated as much as possible from the wintering places of aphids. In addition, early planting of seeds will be useful. Directly on potato crops, as well as in the areas adjacent to them, it is necessary to systematically destroy weeds. It is equally important to eliminate all post-harvest residues from the sites. And since aphids are often spread over plantings by ants, you should also fight with them.
Against potato aphids, vegetation is sprayed with Fitoverm, Fosbecid, Aktellik, Intavir or Rovikurt. You can also use drugs used against the Colorado potato beetle - "Alatar" and "Confidor".
Among the natural pests used in the fight against potato aphids, one can distinguish the Cuban ladybugs cicutoids (one predator for five to ten individuals of potato aphids), lacewings (per square meter from 100 to 150 individuals), aphidius (per square meter - 5 - 10 individuals), parasitic ichneumon flies (the norm is similar to the use of aphidius), a predatory gall midge aphidimizus (for each square meter, 50 - 70 gall midges) and some others.
In principle, measures used against peach aphids are also well suited for protection against potato aphids.
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