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Post by mzgarden on Jun 7, 2015 11:47:31 GMT
Zone 5b and in 20+ years of veg gardening, this is the worst year for cucumbers.
Even using pyrethrin, the beetles have killed off more than half my plants - different varieties, all succumbing. I remove them when I find them and use pyrethrin but it doesn't seem to slow them down one bit.
Anybody have ideas?
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Post by paquebot on Jun 7, 2015 12:55:06 GMT
The solution is spinosad. There are now a number of insecticides on the market that contain it. My favorite is Bonide's "Colorado Potato Beetle Beater" which is available at most garden centers. There's a different brand carried by WalMart but I don't recall the name at the moment. It's organic and it works on cucumber beetles as well as any other non-sucking type insect.
Martin
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Post by 1shotwade on Jun 7, 2015 13:11:00 GMT
A word of caution.You do not want to carry over spinosad from year to year. It does go a long way so I only mix a small batch at a time.Last year I carried it over from the year before and killed my entire potato patch.Mix what you need and nothing more.
Wade
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Post by barefootfarmer on Jun 7, 2015 15:14:28 GMT
Captain Jack's Dead Bug Brew has the spinosad that you need. I buy it in the concentrate form. It is wonderful! Two or three years ago those pests decimated all of my squash and cukes. That's when I first heard about the spinosad- from paquebot actually. After that, I stocked up on it well before gardening season. Good luck. |
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Post by Bear Foot Farm on Jun 7, 2015 23:15:53 GMT
A word of caution.You do not want to carry over spinosad from year to year. It does go a long way so I only mix a small batch at a time.Last year I carried it over from the year before and killed my entire potato patch.Mix what you need and nothing more. Wade I suspect something else besides an organic insecticide killed those plants |
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Post by paquebot on Jun 8, 2015 2:17:50 GMT
A word of caution.You do not want to carry over spinosad from year to year. It does go a long way so I only mix a small batch at a time.Last year I carried it over from the year before and killed my entire potato patch.Mix what you need and nothing more. Wade Reminds me of a friend about 10 years ago when there were a lot of potato beetles in his garden. It was organic and we didn't have spinosad yet. Anything that killed those bugs was not organic. He had something that he thought was for bugs and used it on his potato plants. Probably killed the bugs but also killed the plants. He never told me what he used but just hoed off the plants and didn't even leave them on the compost pile. To present, carried over a quart of mix and have used it in flea beetles. Plants, especially eggplants, are all thanking me profusely for ridding them of those pests. Two reports of cucumber beetles already so I may as well walk around with a hoe in one hand and spray bottle in the other. (Did I ever mention that I hate weeds as much as bad bugs?) Martin |
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Post by Bear Foot Farm on Jun 8, 2015 21:34:58 GMT
I suspect something else besides an organic insecticide killed those plants Well,I called the company and that's what I was told.They went as far as to recommend you empty the sprayed after each days use. Wade It's no surprise they'd say that, since it requires you to buy more of their product. I still doubt it had anything to do with the death of the plants, since Spinosad is derived from a naturally occurring soil bacteria that affects insects and not plants |
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Post by Bear Foot Farm on Jun 8, 2015 21:54:26 GMT
It's no surprise they'd say that, since it requires you to buy more of their product. I still doubt it had anything to do with the death of the plants, since Spinosad is derived from a naturally occurring soil bacteria that affects insects and not plants You know,I get I'm just your village idiot 'cause it seems like everything I post you have a problem with. Now You know more than the manufacturer. Have a good day. Wade That's all in your mind Paquebot used it after keeping it a year and it didn't kill any of his plants Unless you spoke specifically to a chemist or biologist, you just got a secretary on the phone, who gave the standard answer. |
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Post by paquebot on Jun 9, 2015 1:58:39 GMT
Interesting! I've carried some spinosad over for past 3 winters. I first used it in 2012 and still have the same spray bottle that was used for the first batch. Only carryover restriction that I've ever seen either on the label or the Internet site is to not allow it to freeze. Consequences are not mentioned but suspect that it kills the bacteria if frozen. For certain, the batch that I made up probably last September for cabbage worms is making a lot of flea beetles wish that they never hatched in June.
Martin
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Post by themotherhen on Jun 17, 2015 4:28:46 GMT
I use cabbage as a "sacrificial" crop mixed in with my cukes. It is so hot now that the cabbage will bolt anyway. The bugs eat the cabbage and leave my cucumbers alone. That way I don't have to spray with chemicals. I don't know enough about them to safely use them, so I find other ways. My Grandma is a great source of information on gardening. She doesn't remember what she had for breakfast :-( but she remembers how to garden. Her family were too poor to purchase fertilizer so chicken poo and straw was the fertilizer and garden tricks stood in for bug sprays. I am trying to learn as much as I can.
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Post by paquebot on Jun 18, 2015 4:17:30 GMT
I use cabbage as a "sacrificial" crop mixed in with my cukes. It is so hot now that the cabbage will bolt anyway. The bugs eat the cabbage and leave my cucumbers alone. That way I don't have to spray with chemicals. I don't know enough about them to safely use them, so I find other ways. Hmmmm! I've been up close and personal with about every pest possible in our gardens and haven't met one that eats both cabbage and cucumber. One or the other could be eaten to a stub and the other would grow rampant if only a single species of bug were involved. The results of it may look good but not what it appears to be. Martin |
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Post by themotherhen on Jun 18, 2015 7:06:27 GMT
This is what works for me now, Martin. I have zucchini growing, cucumbers growing, and flowers on my tomatoes and peppers. I have planted cabbage as a sacrificial crop around all of my beds. I started the cabbage from seed and it cost me .40 per seed packet. I spent less than $2 and the bugs eat the cabbage and not my other plants. And when I talk to my dear Grandmother, she asks how my garden is, and I can give her good news :-)
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Post by 1shotwade on Jun 18, 2015 12:05:25 GMT
This week I was told by a person on another forum that they use paper cutouts of the white "butterfly" and put them on all the cabbage,broccoli etc and is effective in deterring the ones that lay eggs on these plants. May Be,I've not tried this but stranger things have happened.
Wade
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Post by bearcreekfarm on Jun 22, 2015 17:52:16 GMT
We have been gardening at our present location for 8 years. This is the first year that we have ever seen a cucumber beetle. In fact, when I saw the first batch I had to go and look them up on the internet in order to ID them.
Interestingly, they are only eating/laying eggs on my winter squash plants. So far, they have not touched any of my cucumber plants.
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