Protect your cuke , cantaloupe , squash , and pumpkins from cucumber beetles and the plant life disease they can spread .
If you distinguish some small plunder or descry beetles crawling on yourcucumber plants , you are probably look at cucumber beetles . They may also show up onsquash , pumpkins , andmelonsbecause these insects eat any penis of the cucurbit family . The pests feed on leaves and trim yield , but the big trouble they cause is spreading a wilt disease that kills plants . A few easy prevention technique can assist you forfend or reduce an plague , but you must act early . Here ’s how to annihilate cucumber beetle on your plants and minimize the damage .
What Are Cucumber Beetles?
There are two distinct species of cucumber beetle — striped and spotted . Both type are yellow and mordant and about ¼ in long . The abdomen of the stripy cucumber mallet is — you venture it — striped sensationalistic and black . Its spotted first cousin has a yellow abdomen with 12 pitch-dark spot .
young beetles , or larvae , are whitish , about ⅜ inch long , and be in the soil . “ The larvae will feed on cucurbit radical , but are seldom prejudicial to the plant or yield , ” say Jerry Brust , IPM Vegetable Specialist for the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension Service .
The adult mallet overwinter in leaf bedding or other plant debris .
Credit: Justin Hancock
“ A cardinal divergence between the two species is that the striped cucumber beetle can overwinter in the Midwest , while the spot cucumber beetle can not , and it must travel northwards each year . In the Midwest , we usually do n’t have significant issue with the spotted cucumber vine beetle due to their recent reaching , ” explains Patrick Liesch , director of the University of Wisconsin , Madison Insect Diagnostic Lab .
What Do Cucumber Beetles Eat?
Beetles most often flow on leaves and can defoliate young plants when they are most susceptible . The louse mostly feed in from the underside of leaf , leaving hole and discoloration in their aftermath . The beetle will move to stem turn , flowers , and fruit if population are high .
The most serious trouble cause by stripy cucumber mallet is the spread of bacterial wilt disease from septic cucurbit or mourning band . Once infected , a plant can not be save — it wilts , the leaves dry out up , and the plant dies stem by stem . Removeinfected cucumber plantsto help prevent further spread of the disease . check that to dispose of the plant in the deoxyephedrine , not your compost bin , to avoid any further spread of the disease . Cucumbers and muskmelons are more susceptible to bacterial wilt disease than other cucurbits .
How to Avoid Cucumber Beetles
you’re able to useseveral strategy to avoid an infestationof cucumber beetles .
“ One important approach is to choose change that are less attractive to beetle . That can help oneself prevent proceeds before they even begin . Crop rotary motion and using trap crops can also help , ” state Liesch , who is have intercourse as the Wisconsin Bug Guy .
A trap crop is a plant you grow specifically to appeal a pest and keep it from harm your desire crop .
Credit: Marty Baldwin
“ you may embed a highly preferred cucurbit like Blue Hubbard squash that the beetle will preferentially feed upon before you plant your chief crop of cucurbit . This former universe of stripy cucumber beetles is the most devastating one and the longer you may keep them off of your main crop the better . Much of the Blue Hubbard squash vine will be damage but that is its purpose , ” explains Brust . “ The trap crop works some of the clock time but not always as beetles will find the main crop and feed and taint that too finally , ” he adds .
run-in screening are a bully way to forestall an infestation .
“ Growers shoulduse quarrel coversand cover their master harvest of cucurbits until the plants get down to flower and then remove the rowing book binding . By this time plants are big enough to take most beetle feeding without a trouble and beetle populations have diminish from earlier in the time of year , ” says Brust .
Other preventive strategy include remove green goddess that can serve as substitute hosts , mulching around plantsto discourage eggs lay , removing the remains of old plant at the end of the time of year to keep down overwintering situation for grownup beetle , and rotating your cucurbit crop to avoid imbed them near overwintering beetle .
How to Get Rid of Cucumber Beetles
“ It is very hard to end an plague after it starts . Once beetles observe and commence to feed on cucurbits , they relinquish an aggregation pheromone along with industrial plant volatiles and then other striped cucumber mallet will come to this party in high numbers , ” says Brust .
If you find beetles on your plant , you have several pick to repress their populations . You should supervise your plants ofttimes — at least every couple of day .
“ beetle can be squash by hand or knocked into a container of soapy water , although they are pretty nimble , ” evoke Liesch . You may find it easier to plunk them off if you wear gloves surface with petroleum jelly . you could also use yellow muggy trap to trance them .
Insecticidessuch as neem oiland pyrethrin aid reduce severe infestation , although pyrethrin is only effective when it amount into link with the beetles — it has no residual presence . Several lifelike predatorsfeed on cucumber beetles , including ladybugs , braconid wasps , and unripened lacewings . Avoid spray if you see predatory animal in action .
