Cucumber Beetle - Yellow with black spots

clfraser 4/14/2011, 7:46 am

I believe I have a cucumber beetle in my garden. It is black with yellow spots and I found it on my green beans. How can I get rid of it and any possible eggs, larvae before my plants die? Any experience with this?

dizzygardener 4/14/2011, 9:29 am

I garden organically. I can't stand the thought of ingesting nasty chemical that also kill our bees (yeh Sevin, I'm talking about you Mad

).

There are a few organic ways to control them:

1. Hand picking adult bugs and scraping off the eggs.
2. Treat individual bugs with insecticidal soap and neem oil.
3. Dust plants with Rotenone dust (without pyrethrum to protect the bees).
4. Dust plants with DE (might be harmful to bees)

Each of these treatments requires you to repeat until you have the population under control. This is not a one shot sort of thing.

Best of luck to you!

FarmerValerie 4/14/2011, 2:16 pm

I ordered some Pyola from gardensalive.com, but I'll have to be careful spraying on blossoms, as it could kill my hubby's bees, and it says do not use in temps above 90 degrees-I'm in TX, I'm expecting 90 degrees any day now.

You can also try a quart size spray bottle with 3/4 water, 1/4 rubbing alcohol and 1 Tbsp of dish soap, spray directly on bugs. The alcohol helps their skin absorb it and makes the soap more effective. You can also use a natural soap like Dr. Bonners, which can be bought at any health food store or online. Mrs. whatchamacallits (sorry cannot remember) is now at Wal Mart, it's supposed to be somewhat natural.

clfraser 4/14/2011, 2:30 pm

Thanks. I saw one yesterday and killed it and have not seen any today, but I a going to keep looking and try to get something to try to control them. I was hoping my ladybugs would help with most pests. Yet, I have found a lot of dead ladybugs in the garden lately. There are little holes in lots of my leaves and I am worried something is there. We have had some days of 90 already, not this week but last, so that would not be good. How worried should I be? Will this completely ruin my garden?

FarmerValerie 4/14/2011, 2:49 pm

I lost my garden last year to those and squash bugs, but I also hurt my back and was stuck inside for almost 4 months, and well, the kids did not like picking bugs off the plants. You should have enough info to keep ahead of them, unfortunately down here, that's what many of us do. Honestly though, I'll take fighting the buggers and a mild winter over cold bug killing winters and shorter growing seasons any day. I have squash and zuchinni in the garden now, not blooming yet, more on the table to put out there this weekend, and will be starting more from seed this week too, we can keep planting it to help stay ahead of them too, yes they may find their way over to the new plants, but at least our odds of getting some harvest goes up, and they are only seeds.

clfraser 4/14/2011, 8:43 pm

I was out today and there were no bugs, but lots of holes in my plants. So something must be out there and I am not spotting them. Also, my cucumber plants seem to be shriveling up and drying out before my eyes. Do you think my cucumber plants have had it and I should just start over?

FarmerValerie 4/15/2011, 8:40 am

My cukes are not doing great either, but then the temperatures have been up and down. I will be planting a second crop direct seed this weekend, I'm leaving the others to see if the weather will settle and they will perk up.

**jimmy cee** 3/30/2013, 11:37 pm

One good method of removing these bugs permanently.
A small container of soapy water, check each flower on cucumber and zucchini plants.
When you see one inside the flower, place the dish of soapy water just below the lowest part of the flower.
Gently shake the flower, the bug will scurry out and just drop into the soapy solution.
This takes time to do this, one of the many methods....

Triciasgarden 3/30/2013, 11:56 pm

One way to try to find what is eating your plants is to go out at night (or at dusk when it is cooling off) with a flashlight. Make sure you check under the leaves as well as the top of the leaves and look at the soil and maybe even loosen up some to see if something is lurking there. See if you can catch at least one of the bug(s) in a jar so you can get a good look at it/them to confirm what they are. That was how I found I had a bad infestation of earwigs last year.

Pollinator 3/31/2013, 12:21 am

The easiest control for cucumber beetles (just like squash bugs) is to repel them. Interplant dwarf French marigolds with your cukes. I have no cucumber beetles in my back yard garden, though I often see them on my sunflowers in the front yard.

**camprn** 3/31/2013, 7:18 am

Pollinator, I have to get some of these French Marigolds. In looking at this list, is there a variety that you, and the bees, prefer?
http://modernsurvivalblog.com/survival-garden/which-marigolds-are-french-marigolds/

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Cucumber Beetle - Yellow with black spots

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