Gardeners’ Forum: “Cucumber beetles”
Back to Gardeners’ ForumCucumber beetles
Posted by Colleen MacLeod on Sunday, May 6, 2007 10:23 am ADTFor the last 3-4 years I'm having a big problem with cucumber beetles. They attack vine plants as soon as they appear. I have covered them with row cover and this only saves the plants so the beetles can attack the surviving mature plants and eat the blossom and young fruit. The beetles transmit powdery mildew which wipes out off the plants which have survived the beetles. I am moving my garden to my neighbors field (400 M away). I wonder if I can fool the beetles or will they 'smell' out my new location? I live on the Western side of Cape Breton Island.
re: Cucumber beetles
Posted by Howard Harvey on Sunday, May 27, 2007 5:00 pm ADTThe first defence against most chewing and sucking insects is dish soap diluted with water - maybe 1-2 tablespoons of soap in a litre of water. Use a hose-end sprayer with a dial built in to vary the concentration of the spray. The sprayer costs $ 10. - 15. dollars. Of course, the sprayer can be used for liquid fertilizer, as well. The second defence could be Safer's BTK biological insecticide in the Vesey catalogue under # 85423 for 100ml. @ 9.95 which you dilute to make 30L. of solution. All the BT lines, regardless of the manufacturer act the same way, You spray the plant and leaves on both sides. The bug chews the plant, and the BT affects the bug's stomach, and it can no longer est and thus starves itself. I have used BT Berliner against earwigs years ago with drastic effects - thousands paralyzed and inert on my garden shed wall on a hot sunny noon time. Earwigs usually run for shade in the daylight. Also, add a tablespoon of dish soap to the BT mixture as it helps to keep the solution on the plants longer when it rains.. Wash out the hose-end sprayer each time when you use it for different purposes - or buy two - one for bug control and one for fertilizer.
