What's Eating My Sweet Potatoes?
Sweet potato vines can lose half their leaves and still make a crop — the damage that matters happens underground. Know which is which before you worry.
The usual suspects
Deer
The signs: Vines grazed hard, ragged bite edges, whole patch topped overnight.
What it looks like: Browse height and hoofprints; deer treat the patch as a salad bar.
What to do: The vines tolerate moderate browsing better than you'd fear, but persistent pressure needs netting or fencing to protect the root crop's energy supply.
Sweet potato weevil
The signs: In the South: punctured stems, and roots riddled with winding, bitter, dark tunnels at harvest.
What it looks like: A striking ant-like weevil — metallic blue-black with an orange-red thorax; grubs are white and legless inside roots.
What to do: Buy certified slips, rotate ground, hill soil over developing roots, and destroy culls — once established it's very hard to evict.
Wireworms
The signs: Shallow round holes and short tunnels marring the root surface.
What it looks like: Stiff golden larvae in the soil, worst after sod.
What to do: Rotate away from new-broken ground; harvest on time rather than leaving roots to cure in the soil.
Flea beetles
The signs: Pinholes in leaves and, from their soil-dwelling larvae, fine winding grooves etched on root skins.
What it looks like: Tiny black jumping beetles on foliage.
What to do: Cosmetic on vigorous vines; keep plants growing fast with steady water.
Voles and mice
The signs: Gnawed hollows in roots close to the surface, runways in surrounding mulch.
What it looks like: Paired tooth marks, no tunnels through the root's interior.
What to do: Thin the mulch late season, trap, and don't leave the crop in the ground after vines yellow.
When it's not a pest at all
Dark scaly patches on the skin that rub off with your thumb are scurf, a cosmetic fungus — the potato underneath is fine. Cracked roots come from irregular watering, not teeth.
Or just point your phone at it
Snap a photo of the leaf, the bug, or the droppings, and Harold — the advisor built into Homestead Paradise — names what he sees, tells you friend or foe, and what he'd do next. Honest when he's unsure, and careful where it counts.
Put Harold's Eyes on it — free 14-day trial