Preventive Control
Natural enemies
Parasitoids
- Diadegma
- Native parasitic wasps and flies
Predators
- Ground beetle
- Minute pirate bug
- Spider
Cultural and management practices
- Proper selection of planting materials. Select cultivars that are resistant to PTM or plant only clean and not infested seed pieces.
- Thorough land preparation before planting.
- Deep planting (10 cm deep) and regular hilling-up (3 times) of the soil to cover the developing tuber by at least 5 cm.
- Mulch the plants with rice straw and/or with cut weeds or leaves. Mulching plants with neem leaves during the last 4 weeks before harvest also reduces PTM infestation.
- Provide adequate water to prevent soil crack.
- Intercrop potatoes with hot pepper, or onion, or peas.
- Harvest immediately as soon as the crops mature.
- Do not leave harvested potatoes in the field overnight.
- Do not cover harvested potatoes with potato tops and other debris.
- Destroy all infested potatoes immediately.
- Remove all plant residues from the field. Larvae pupate in the tubers and dry stems left in the field. Tubers become volunteer crop (weeds) in the rotation crops.