spotted cucmber beetle

nikkablue 7/27/2010, 11:23 am

My Garden has been infested with cucumber beetles, does anyone know a good pesticide to get rid of them? They're destroying my cukes and green beans!

Chopper 7/27/2010, 3:52 pm

I hate those guys. I had some but not quite an infestation. I was able to eliminate a lot through the squish method. Luckily they are pretty slow.

I understand Neem oil is good. Since it is a common pest, read the labels on insecticieds and it out to be listed.

Megan 7/27/2010, 6:53 pm

I have them too. I never knew they existed before this year, but oh are they annoying! Evil or Very Mad

They don't seem to be bothering my cukes or beans (that I can tell? though I certainly find tons of them on the cuke plants) but they are scarring up the surface of my squash. Still edible, but doesn't look nice. We have been spraying with Neem oil, really early or really late in hopes of saving the bees. (There are still plenty of bees around.) Good luck!

One thing I should share... a few months ago I noticed the soil literally crawling with lots of little wormies. I didn't think much of it at the time, but looking back on it now, I think those were the larvae of flea beetles and possibly of cucumber beetles. I should have hit them with DE at the time, but of course I didn't. Sad

Live and learn.

Retired Member 1 7/27/2010, 10:08 pm

An organic pesticide I just found out about that is not deadly to bees or most beneficial insects is Spinosad. It's supposed to last up to 3 days but is completely harmless to humans, so, like Neem oil can be used on day of harvest. I just ordered some and have put the striped cuke beetles on notice. I'll let folks know how it works once I use some.

Megan 7/27/2010, 10:46 pm

I may be mis-remembering, but I thought I read some scary things about Spinosad here on the forum....?

jenjehle 7/28/2010, 12:19 am

Megan wrote:I may be mis-remembering, but I thought I read some scary things about Spinosad here on the forum....?

Our Horticultural Educator at the local Extension Office in my city higly recommends Spinosad on a frequent basis. He says it works very well and has not voiced any concerns that I know of. And he's the most ORGANIC gardener I know!

HTH!

Retired Member 1 7/28/2010, 8:08 am

Megan wrote:I may be mis-remembering, but I thought I read some scary things about Spinosad here on the forum....?

I missed those posts and can't find them through the search function. All the web research I did did not come up with any cautions against Spinosad, so I would be most interested in whatever you found that showed it to be dangerous. I found several sites that stated bees are repelled by the odor, it is not harmful to mammals or birds, and is not even toxic to fish except in very high concentrations. It is used is very low concentrations to kill garden pests.

**camprn** 7/28/2010, 8:47 am

there is a link to a pesticide database in this thread

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