cucumber beetles

[nikki]

I already have a cucumber beetle problem :( -
I have not had a problem with them in the past (usually squash bugs) but on ispection of my young pumkin/summer sqaush/wintersquash I am seeing cucumber beetles. I have a bed didicated to these plants this year with an edging of borage, narsturtium and cosmos. I have already mulched the summer squash end (with old leftover alfalfa that the horses can't eat). I was catching up on weeding and getting ready to mulch the winter sqaush end when I discovered them. I have hand picked all that I can see.

My organic pest garden book tells me to mulch (done/ in the process of doing). Hand pick (also already done- but will have to keep up with this now). I did not see any eggs on the underside of leaves. The book also says to control adults with pyrethium spray.

My questions then if anyone can help:
This is my first year with a dedicated sqaush patch. Is having a patch with just squash a bad bug magnet area and not a good idea?

What exactly is pyrethium and where can I get it?

Should I possible pull up what I already have growing and start over? The plants have been in the ground about 2 weeks. I have summer sqaush varieties that I know I could still get a later harvest from if I had to do this. Not so sure on the winter sqaush/pumpkins. I am in zone 5 borderline 4.(I ask this one because my book also says that cucumber beetles carry wilt)

Anyone have any good home remedies for these bugs???

Sorry this is so long and thanks!!!

[zebraman]

Hey Nikki;Pyrethrum is a natural Organic Pesticide made from the Pyrethrum Daisy.It is readily available.In the Future cover your Beds (squash)with row cover until the plants are starting to flower.By this time plants will be too healthy for them(bugs) to be much of a problem.-

[Brook]

For more or less stable cucurbits (i.e., cucumbers on trellises, bush-type squashes), radishes make a great companion plant. They both deter cucumber beetles and act as a trap plant for flea beetles.

Unfortunatly, with running types, like most winter squash, it's difficult to keep the radishes in useful position. You'd be spending more time planting (and avoiding with your feet) radishes than anything else. But it wouldn't hurt to spot-plant some throughout the bed to see if that helps any.

[bluelacedredhead]

I thought that the only good thing about radishes was as a companion plant, ;)

[nikki]

I love the first radish of the season myself! I do have a radish patch though that is almost done and think I will plant two summer sqaush plants there as well as I think I will lose a few plants.

My winter sqaush seems to be doing OK still in spite of the beetles. I will just have to keep a close eye out for signs of disease.

I have been hand picking and my 41/2 year old has been helping- (right up his alley picking and squishing bugs). I have seen fewer each day and this AM only had a couple.

I wanted to post other methods I read about of getting rid of cucumber beetles after posting. Sticky traps painted yellow (mixture of pretrloeum jelly and dish soap) is suppossed to attract the adult beetles. You can staple a cotton ball soaked in oil of allspice, bay or clove to help attract them. Trying this one today not sure if it will work.

Also read that you can put a handful of lime and handful of wood ashes stir and sprinkle on the plant leaves (underside too) this is supposed to just drive the beetles away but not kill them. I think if I did this one I would have to do my whole garden I don't want to "drive" them to another area too.

Also said you can apply beneficial nematodes to soil weekly to control larvae. Not sure if any of the garden centers close by carry these. I doubt the small one in the closest town does. There is a greenhouse about 30 miles away that might. Anyone know an on-line site to order these? Going to do a search to see if I can find one.

I will wait on the pyrithium for now. Read that if you have hayfever to avoid it because it can cause a bad reaction. I have some mild hayfever so will try other things first.

[redbrick]

Keep in mind that Pyrethrum is very indiscriminate, and will kill benificials as well as pests.

[zebraman]

Hey Nikki;www.gardensalive.com I buy from this Company and have had great service from them.-

[bluelacedredhead]

Nikki, You aren't alone in this. I transplanted several pumpkin plants and a couple of Cushaw squash outdoors on Sunday. Today I saw a Cucumber beetle on one of the squash plants...I planted radishes when I transplanted, but two days isn't enough time even for a radish to germinate and do its job..so.....back to the house to grab the dust.
I use a mix of Rotenone and DE. Works well for SVB too. I sprinkle the stem at ground level weekly to control them. And dust both sides of the leaves for Cucumber Beetles.

Sounds like it's going to be a wicked year for Beetles in general from the look of the posts today. :(

[nikki]

Thanks for the info!
What is DE? I looked up Rotenone and think I will probably not use this as I have small children who think the garden is their snack area they will eat summer squash fresh picked). My main reference book this year (The Organic Gardeners Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control) said that there is some new evidence that suggests it may cause growth abnormalities.
My winter sqaush seems to be surviving and growing OK so far (I have three varieties of pumpkins and five of winter squash- some with two hills each). I know I have lost some of my summer sqaush. I have 7 different varieties of summer sqaush with two hills of each. This is twice as much as I usually plant (I am doing farmers market this year). I Have about 1/3 that are really bad, 1/3 that were chewed on a bit and 1/3 they have not touched. I would love to tell you exactly what each variety it was that they are not touching but my summer sqaush had issues prior to bugs. My DH did not know I had planted it and dug for worms to take the youngins fishen-sooo I have a couple areas that are pretty mish-mashed!

I have tried the sticky-traps and have a caught some bugs (not enough) I am cooking up a hot-pepper/garlic/onion mixture to try as a spray.

I may try the nematodes still too- this would help later this summer. I also found them at Territorial Seed too.

I will keep trying different things and if anything works let you know too!

[bmarkham]

The cucumber beetles arrived on my cukes this past Thursday. Just to share, I'll let y'all know what hasn't worked so far for me ....

Yellow sticky traps either with or without an attractant. I tried plain yellow sticky traps, sticky traps with a cottonball soaked in clove oil, and sticky traps baited with a commercial cucumber beetle attractant. In all three cases, I caught more pollinators than anything else; and the traps (arranged two of each type per plant) caught only 8 beetles between all of them in a 24 hour period; whereas I was able to get 40 by handpicking looking the plants over once in a while. The yellow sticky traps were an absolute massacre on tiny little wasps and small bees though - so I took them down.

The following sprayings were all done after dark to minimize damage to bees ....

Rotenone - well, unless it takes a few days to work, I noticed nothing. After three days following a very thorough spraying with rotenone, the cucumber beetles seem to be getting more rather than less numerous.

Rotenone mixed with pyrethrin ... after 24 hours, no difference in beetle prevalence.

My most recent approach was last night: neem oil with rotenone and pyrethrin. That combination probably counts as a biological WMD, so it ought to work .... I'll let y'all know.

These might be special cucumber beetles that are invulnerable to all normal things. We'll see when I look it over tonite ....

:-)

[onmyknees]

found them on my zuchinni last night pale grey almost spider looking bugs used glue stick on yellow paper see it that works but handpicked all i could see found that masking tape wrapped around sticky side out on my fingers made for a quicker job of it and handy to dispose of them

[nikki]

I did break down and use pyrithin on my squash. It seemed to work and most are growing well now. I have had to reapply though and also had to apply some to my melons and cucumbers. I do not know if it was the right choice or not because there seems to be tons of these bugs this year and I know pyrithin also kills beneficials. I have never had a problem with cucumber beetles in the past so I am not sure if the weather here this year (very dry) is a better enviroment for them or if it was my early sqaush devoted bed that attracted them. I know of one other person in the area who has seen an increase in them this year. My mother 8 miles up the road really hasn't had too many. I will note in her case she actually is a fan of Seven so that may be why she has few. (I have tried to get her to at least try to go organic- that is a different thread though:)!) I do still plan to order beneficial nematodes- but I have to order these and they are a little more expensive. I am hoping applying them before fall will help to kill anything in the soil and should help next year. ????

The little spider bugs you discribe sound to me like a stage of sqaush bugs. I have used an organic soap spray for them in the past, hand pick the adult sqaush bugs and destroy their eggs- you'll find them on the leaves. I think for sqaush bugs you have to act fast because they seem to come out in droves pretty fast.

[nikki]

wan't to add that the spray seems to work best on the young ones- not the adults in my experience. I just read the thread on sqaush bugs posted too. Might read that!