Potato tuber moth: Phthorimaea operculella
Symptoms of damage:
- It is a pest of field and storage
- Larva tunnels into foliage, stem and tubers
- Galleries are formed near tuber eyes
Identification of pest:
- Egg: Laid singly on the ventral surface of foliage and exposed tubers
- Larva: Yellow coloured caterpillar with dark brown head
- Pupa: Pupation occurs within a cocoon among the trash, clods of the earth in the field
- Adult: Small narrow-winged moth, greyish brown forewings, and hind wings are dirty white
Management:
- Select healthy tubers
- Avoid shallow planting of tubers. Plant the tubers to a depth at 10 – 15 cm deep
- Install pheromone traps at 15/ha.
- Collect and destroy all the infested tubers from the field
- Do not leave the harvested tubers in the field overnight
- Adopt intercropping with chilies, onion or peas
- Do earthing up at 60 days after planting to avoid female moths laying eggs on the exposed tubers
- Cover the upper surface of potato tubers with the branches of Lantana and Eupatorium to repel the ovipositing moth in the godown
- Release egg larval parasitoid: Chelonus blackburnii @30,000/ha twice at 40 and 70 day after planting
- Spray NSKE @5% or quinalphos 25 EC @2ml/lit of water to manage foliar damage
- Spray Bacillus thuringiensis @1 kg/ha at 10 days interval
Source-
- TamilNadu Agritech Portal
