Insect Management Guide for sweetpotatoes Cultural practices . Cultural practices are sometimes recommended to alleviate weevil problem. Isolation is frequently recommended, and it is advisable to locate new fields away from previous crops and distant from sweet potato storage facilities, because both can be a source of new infestations. However, despite the infrequency of flight by adults, dispersal can occur over considerable distances. Dispersal rates of 150 m per day have been observed, with dispersal more rapid in the absence of suitable hosts.
Sanitation is particularly important for weevil population management.
Discarded tubers and unharvested tubers can support large population, and every effort should be made to remove such host material. Biological control . Entomopathogenic nematodes seem to be the organisms with the greatest potential for practical biological suppression of sweetpotato weevil. At least in the soils of southern Florida, the infective nematodes are persistent, remaining active for up to four months. In some cases nematodes are more effective than insecticides at reducing damage.