The sweet potato flea beetle is the most common pest of sweet potatoes in North Carolina. Soil-inhabiting pests lower grades or make potatoes unmarketable and are most economically important. Tough the sweet potato weevil is the most damaging pest of this crop nationwide, it has only recently been founding in North Carolina and is a potential problem here.
Many pests attack sweet potato foliage.
In the plant bed, this injury can be threatening. In the field, however, there is little evidence that foliar pests do enough damage to warrant treatment.