What Are the Holes in My Sweet Potato Vines?

Slugs are an enemy of sweet potatoes.

Pests that eat the leaves of a sweet potato vine not only detract from its aesthetic appeal, but they also damage the plant as a food source, sometimes preventing human or livestock consumption.

Slugs

Slugs anxious for a tasty meal often cause numerous, smooth-edged holes in the leaves of sweet potato vines, especially in damp, shady areas. Commercial slug traps --- set out in the evening --- are one way to catch the pests; another is to place saucers of beer by the plants. Drawn by the smell of yeast in the beer, the slugs enter the containers and drown.

Weevils

Sweet potato weevils prefer feeding on the roots of the plant, but early in the growing season --- before roots have formed --- adult weevils may nest on the leaves of the vine. "The adult will feed on foliage, lay its eggs on the vines and leaves, and the larvae will feed on the stem or the leaf and pupate inside the vines," says the International Potato Center.

Other Pests

Primarily a problem in Hawaii and Asia, the sweet potato stem borer also attacks the leaf of a vine, laying eggs on the underside of the leaf, stem or vine, with the larva eventually boring into the leaf stem, causing it to yellow and die. Other pests that damage sweet potatoes and vines are cutworms, leaf rollers, leaf ruiners, and the sphinx.

References

• Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station: Insects Attacking the Sweet
• International Potato Center: Sweet Potato Pests

Resources

• Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service