• Question: How do they travel from field to field?

    Asked by aashishkebab to Eoin on 14 Mar 2011.
    • Photo: Eoin Lettice

      Eoin Lettice answered on 14 Mar 2011:

      Hi. Do you mean the Potato Cyst Nematodes?

      They can get spread around the place mixed in with soil that is being moved or being dragged along on peoples shoes or the tyres of tractors, etc.
      One of the best control measures is just to make sure that the pest doesn’t get transferred into your field.

      in fact, we think it might have first come to Europe (it’s native to South America) in bags of bat poo (guano) which was being imported to use as fertiliser. Unfortunatley it was transported in old potato bags which may have been contaminated!

      Eoin.

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