The Potato Tuber Moth: a Potentially Dangerous Pest

Where cull potatoes are dumped in the open, the likelihood of an outbreak is greatly increased, as the moth breeds in this material.

- By Bill Kerr

The potato tuber moth (Phthorimaea operculella) is a small, narrow, mottled grey moth that attacks potatoes as well as other members of the Solanaceous family, such as tomatoes, sweet peppers, chilies, and brinjals. Because it targets so many vegetables, it is widely spread. Moreover, infestation increases when host crops grow nearby or one potato crop closely follows another.

SHORT LIFE CYCLE

The moth lays about 200 single eggs on leaves or on the ground under the plants. It lives for about a week and has a very rapid life cycle.

Like the leaf miner, the newly hatched larvae enter the leaf and tunnel between the upper and lower epidermis. But where the leaf miner bores a thin serpentine tunnel through the leaf, the tuber moth larva stays in one area and causes the leaf to become distorted.