Control measures

The potato crop can be protected either by a full soil treatment or a localised planting furrow treatment, using an authorized insecticide for this purpose.

If ploughing heavily infested grass or fallow lands, the soil must be thoroughly cleansed for 3 years by appropriate cultivation methods and by using efficient insecticide on the corresponding crops (maize, sunflower, beetroot, etc.).

Avoid planting in short rotations or in wet fields that are favourable to both the survival of the larvae and to the damage.

To be effective, the soil cultivation must be done during dry conditions or during the laying period, in late spring or late summer; this partly destroys the eggs and the young larvae, which are very susceptible to dry conditions, but does not affect the older larvae.

This method is not as efficient with A. sordidus, which has a longer flying period and a heterogeneous larval development.