Cucumber beetles on buttercup squash

Hi everyone,

So I've got cucumbers, buttercup, butternut, and tromboncino squash all going in my various beds along the trellis. It has been very hot and dry here. The past few days I've seen a noticable uptick in cucumber beetles (spotted and striped), so much that hand picking isn't a viable option. I see a few on the cucumbers, but on the buttercup squash, specifically in a male flower blossom, there is a party going on. I found some eggs on the underside of leaves of that plant (sprayed with neem oil). I removed the male blossom (don't have any female ones on those anyway), sprayed it, sealed it and disposed of it (there had to 15-20 beetles in that blossom).

Has anyone else found that cucumber beetles seem to like buttercup squash more than their cucumbers? For what it's worth I'm planning on treating the cucumbers and rest of the squash with neem oil this evening (wind permitting). The butternut and tromboncino squash really don't seem to attract them (and I think I've got my first two female flowers pollinated on the tromboncino but I'm not sure since the squash are so big even before the flowers open).

They like my zucchini plants the best.

camprn wrote:
They like my zucchini plants the best.

I'm in the same boat. I haven't been nearly as infested as the previous poster, but I have seen a number of them on my zucchini plant. For a while, I was scared that I'd gotten some kind of disease on the zucchini from them, but they seem to be doing okay. I have to say, smushing that large a bug is not my favorite thing to do.

I know what you mean. The cucumber beetles are vectors for disease that is why I try to be vigilant in squishing the suckers.

I wish I could find pictures of the most common pests and diseases, - including this one.

Warbler wrote:I wish I could find pictures of the most common pests and diseases, - including this one.

Camprn linked to a great resource the other day: http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/ent425/text18/plantvectors.html

moswell wrote:

Warbler wrote:I wish I could find pictures of the most common pests and diseases, - including this one.

Camprn linked to a great resource the other day: http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/ent425/text18/plantvectors.html

Yup, that's a good one. There is a sub forum called Pests and another called Disease. Both have some good information.

The only one I have found so far was on my broccoli. Weird?

I've seen them on almost every plant in my garden, including lettuc plants. They clearly prefer my cucumbers more than anything. I have crook neck squash, gold and black beauty zuchinni. They like those plants too but they LOVE the cukes. Neem oil seems to be helping my garden and hand picking whenever possible.

Good luck.

Hi, hope this posting is okay in this thread.
Cucumber beetles - they just seem to always be hanging around in squash and cucumber blossoms. I try to grab them and squish them whenever I find them. However, usually I catch one or two while several others fly away.
Last night after dark I was out in my garden with a headlamp,to check on something. In the process I discovered that cucumber beetles (both striped and spotted - the latter of which I have never seen before until last night) are way easier to catch and dispose of after dark. They seem to be very reluctant to fly and when they do they only go a short distance and land again. The only hitch is that newer squash flowers will be closed up and as such there will be a number of the beetles hiding in there, However, I found many hanging around on old limps blossoms and on other parks of the plants. So if cucumber beetles are a pest in your garden, try catching them after dark.

J_in_HamiltonON wrote:Hi, hope this posting is okay in this thread.
Cucumber beetles - they just seem to always be hanging around in squash and cucumber blossoms. I try to grab them and squish them whenever I find them. However, usually I catch one or two while several others fly away.
Last night after dark I was out in my garden with a headlamp,to check on something. In the process I discovered that cucumber beetles (both striped and spotted - the latter of which I have never seen before until last night) are way easier to catch and dispose of after dark. They seem to be very reluctant to fly and when they do they only go a short distance and land again. The only hitch is that newer squash flowers will be closed up and as such there will be a number of the beetles hiding in there, However, I found many hanging around on old limps blossoms and on other parks of the plants. So if cucumber beetles are a pest in your garden, try catching them after dark.

Totally agree! I was amazed at what's going on in the garden after dark! We had probs years ago with plants being toppled over by the morning. Went out at night and had hundreds of earwigs partying down!! We had no idea.

When you see that many of these bugs you get kind of shocked for a moment, like how in the world am I going to get rid of that many! I don't think we get japanese beetles here in Utah, luckily. Interesting fact, the news showed how diligent UPS is on keeping the japanese beetle from spreading. They have a whole crew that has been doing this for many years that inspects their airplanes before they head to the West! Go UPS!