In the spring they emerge to lay their eggs on the leaves of the potato plant. Together they can strip a plant bare. Handpicking is best but growers resort to sprays to control them. Aphids and leafhoppers carry both bacteria and viruses and can compound problems. Potato tuber moths lay their eggs in cracks in the ground and can be controlled by keeping the fields well watered so no habitat for eggs can be created.
Wireworms tunnel in potato stems, roots and tubers and can do a great deal of damage.
They are not really worms, but beetle larvae. Back to Top of Page Disorders Brown Center, Hollow Heart, and Translucent End are physiologic potato disorders resulting from vagaries in soil and climate, planting practices, or from potato variety susceptibility. Good crop management practices can control these disorders. Brown Center and Hollow Heart both describe the tissue appearance of the potato and have serious commercial impacts for potato processors and retail customers. Translucent End describes tubers with translucent ends, ends high in reducing sugars and low in starch, or tubers with either a dumbbell shapes or pointed ends.