Cucumber beetles and bacterial wilt

13 years ago

I've seen and killed a few cucumber beetles already, my bush cukes (Spacemaster) are barely a foot long each. Today I picked out 2 vines that were wilted and had beetle-damaged leaves. Killed 2 more beetles. I suspect those vines were already infected by bacterial wilt.

My question is, if I pick out the apparently infected vines and spray the healthy ones with garlic to keep beetles off (and kill any beetles I see), do the rest of the cukes have a chance of growing on without getting the disease?

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Comments (4)

lacysue2
13 years ago
maybe? assuming the beetles are repelled by the garlic spray.
drscottr
13 years ago
I went insane last year with thousands of cucumber beetles - they particularly liked a weed that grew near my garden but also ate my cukes and potatoes. The cukes all got the wilt and died as did the squash. So I went to war. Sprayed the entire area of the garden and 100 feet around the edges with beneficial nematodes that supposedly kill the over wintering cucumber beetles. Also used milky spore to kill the japanese beetles. So far so good this year - only an occasional cucumber beetle - maybe 5 that I've picked off the potatoes. I sprayed the potatoes with soap and pyrethrin. I've covered the Diva Cucumbers with agribon as well. Have seen only a single japanese beetle. It should be time for the second generation of cucumber beetles and we'll see what happens.

I'm waiting for the Mexican Bean beetles - They haven't arrived yet but will use microscopic wasps which worked well the past two seasons.
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Indescriminate spraying is never a recommended course of action. Know what is causing the damage first, then spray for that particular pest/fungus/disease. Or if you know for certain that a fungus/disease is prevalent in your area you can start a preventative spraying program. In the case of your cucumbers, I'd bet that it's cucumber beetles transmitting bacterial wilt to your plants. Nothing you can do about the wilt once your plants have it but you can control the beetles. A search here will pull up a lot of info on them. Rodney
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hepatica_z7
13 years ago
There has been a thread or two on a novel way of controlling CB's using red disclosing dye. Apparently it is phytotoxic to CB's You get them to eat it by using a trap they like, bitter cukes, clove oil, etc. I tried it last year, but late in the season. I don't think I had the right clove oil All I could find was 'clove blossom oil.' I just looked for that thread, and found a new one using a similar idea. Just put 'red dye' in the search box, and all these threads come up. Good luck!

This year, no CB's so far, but that has always been my experience after a heavy snow winter here in the mid-Atlantic.

Hepatica
jimster
13 years ago
I believe I have heard that cucumbers can be planted late, after a certain phase of the beetles' life cycle, and there will be no problem. Does anyone have accurate information about that?

Jim

Cucumber beetles and bacterial wilt

Comments (4)

lacysue2

drscottr

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hepatica_z7

jimster

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