Mexican Bean Beetle

[Sandbar]

I planted bush beans this year, and, as in years past, they have riddled leaves and damaged pods. Finally took the time this year to find the bug and it is the Mexican Bean Beetle. Am searching for a non-pesticide solution for this pest. Rodale suggests interplanting potatoes. That would be fine, except what would I do with the potato bounty (no root cellar and am not interested in pursuing the construction of one), so was wondering if anybody else encountered this pest and has successfully conquered the beast in an organic fashion.

TIA,
Sandbar
(Ohio - zone 5/6)

[Mary]

I had the same problem with my wax beans last year, although I had green beans as well, but beetle preferred the wax .It is very disappointing to have your beans ate up.Someone said to plant petunias ,beetles don't like them .Parasitic wasp is a good bug to have around ,although I might have them ,I wouldn;t know by looking at the bug .I thought of putting down a roll cover , but don't know how well that would work.I'm wondering if the plants would get to hot under the cover.I'm going to keep looking for a solution and try different methods .Look under" sqaush bugs ", John has a mixture he uses that may help , I going to give it try. I hope we find something that works. Let me know if you find something that works , I will do the same .Hope you have a good year.May the 8th I'm going on vacation , won't be back until the 23rd. :)

[Brook]

Short of hand picking, no organic solution works 100%. But petunias do deter bean beetles.

I would site a petunia plant about every three feet along your bean row, alternating sides with them. That should help a great deal.

Another approach is to put in a trap plant. Find something that they like best, and use that to attract them away from the beans you want.

Trap plants can be a very effective approach. For instance, radishes are the second favorite food for flea beetles. So, by planting them heavily, you keep the fleas away from other stuff. Last year, for the first time, I had trouble with Japanese beetles. But they were primarily attracted to just one of the eight pole beans I was growing. I didn't care for that variety, as it turns out. But I'll use it from now on as a trap plant.

[wvorganics]

I think that there are really two threads going about this, Mexican bean beetles and bean beetles. In my area Mexican bean beetles are the most devasting pest, as well as many other places in the US.
I would suggest that unless you have released the parasitic wasp, then you don't have it, it is not native to the United States. Pediobious foveolatus needs to be released each year because there are no acceptable host that overwinter as larvae, however it has found other hosts in different countries, like Japan and Pakistan.
I have used row cover on beans and it is only okay, the beetles will find a way in, now not as many as without row cover, but you can still find some. The temperature under the row cover can be quite different than ambient temperatures and cause your plants to get taller but spindely. They still produce the same yield and once you remove that cover, your beetles will be happy you have preserved your plants so well.
The idea with petunias, is like any other companion planting methods, okay. The mexican bean beetle adult can fly and it has a highly evloved search image, just think about how long it has been searching out beans, it is an evolved insect, like it or not, it's main job is to survive, I don't really think that just the presence of petunias will be effective at detering teh population from eating your plants. The adults will fly over the petunias and the larvae just won't leave the bean plant until after pupation.
After studying this insect there are no pesticides that will be effective either, the only thing that will stop them on any type of bean is the parasitic wasp, Pediobious foveolatus. If you need more info on it, I can direct you to the best places.
Have a nice day