Overview
- Agriculture Minister Alois Rainer called the glass‑winged planthopper a big problem and said it can cause harvest losses of up to 100 percent in individual cases.
- The Julius‑Kühn‑Institut reports no widely effective control to date and is working urgently on solutions after about 100,000 hectares of potatoes and sugar beets were affected last year.
- Experts say the insect has pushed north from the Mediterranean since the 1990s at roughly 50 kilometers per year, with current spread concentrated in southern Germany.
- This year’s potato harvest is described as good, with Bavaria’s planted area up about 3.6 percent to nearly 40,000 hectares and expectations of 12.6 million tonnes overall.
- Authorities promote crop‑sequence changes to starve nymphs, emergency approvals for pesticides, and fallowing, while Bavaria funds research and regional reports warn of 30–50 percent losses in affected areas.