FYI, a lure crop for Mexican Bean beetles

13 years ago

Given the lure of radishes for flea beetles in my garden shown in this thread, I don't think the value of lure crops for insect pests can be overstated if the pests are destructive to your bean crops.

While flea beetles are too lively for hand dispatching (for me), the MBB is not, so if there's a patch where they all congregate leaving most everything else alone, they are definitely handleable.

I've been researching preferred host plants for Mexican Bean beetles, wondering whether soybeans are preferred over other bean plants by the MBB as was recommended on the Organic Gardening forum.

It would be great if someone would research or gather research already done on the preferences of Mexican Bean beetles in some sort of ranking, but all I could find was this link by the University of Florida that makes this claim:
It has been reported that some varietal

differences in leaf feeding damage from Mexican

bean beetle exist among common beans. Lima beans

are less preferred than snapbean. Among snapbeans,

the group called wax beans tends to be especially

preferred. Other types of beans such as mung beans,

P. aureus, cowpea, Vigna sinensis, and soybeans,

Glycine max, do not escape Mexican bean beetle

damage; however, they are not preferred and are most

damaged when they are grown in the vicinity of snap

and lima beans, more preferred hosts.

If you like wax beans and grow them each year to eat, this won't be very helpful to you if you have to battle the MBB. But I don't like wax beans that much, finding them too bland for the time and effort that are put into growing them, so it's very useful for me! I'm going to sow some of the wax bean seeds I have left over from other years a bit away from my green beans and see if the MBB prefers them to the beans I want to save from their depredations! So far, I haven't seen any MBB among my green beans, but all the literature states they become active in this area just about this time of year, so I need to hop to it.

[Posted in case it's helpful for you, too.]

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Comments (9)

anney
Original Author
13 years ago
Jimster

Yours and Rodger's experience with Pediobius foveolatus needs to be included in the solution to any kind of MBB problem. As you said in another post, it may boil down to cost-effectiveness. Large crops of vulnerable beans are probably best addressed by the release of Pediobius foveolatus.

For smaller bean crops, I'm hoping to find a way to "herd" the MBBs into areas away from those crops where they can then be dispatched. I'll be planting a few wax beans several feet away from the Fortexes, Italian green beans, limas, and cowpeas and then see what I can do about killing the beetles if they gravitate to these wax beans.
roper2008
13 years ago
I planted some bush beans last summer and no beetles. I did , however,
see the yellow beetles with black strips on my Love Lies Bleeding
plants. I think it was the bean beetle. Maybe Love Lies Bleeding can
be a trap crop.
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GIO I'm going to look into finding the red dye as well. Are you planning on water, clove oil, and the red dye? I'd much rather use that than the Sevin... Yes, I'll be using the red dye, water, clove oil and other containers with the dye and tayuya root powder, which I have. No Sevin. The only place I could find the dental disclosing tablets was online. Your dentist might have some tucked away in a cabinet somewhere -- I'm not sure how common their use is these days, though I think they're used to help children brush thoroughly! But check to be sure the dye is #28 red, since #40 red is used sometimes. Also, about the clove oil. One woman tried it when we were experimenting but apparently put it full-strength and *some* liquid Sevin in a plastic cup. She reported that the next morning the bottom of the cup had melted away! I read later that undiluted clove oil WILL melt plastic. I used styrofoam cups and probably a greater dilution of the clove oil with water and didn't have any problems at all. Good point about the yellow containers. I got excited about making it more effective without considering the consequences to the pollinators. However, is the red dye toxic to the pollinators? The red dye will be consumed only by the insects attracted to the lure it's mixed with, and that's ONLY cuke beetles, not the pollinators or other insects. The reason is that the chemical compound, cucurbitacin , is in the lure that attracts cucumber beetles. It exists in varying degrees in all cucurbits, but the beetles flock to some cucurbit plants in droves and less to others, quite likely because of the strength of the odor. OTOH, pollinators are attracted to the cucurbit flowers, mostly through the kind of light emitted by various colors and probably the nectar in them, and cucurbitacin is of no interest to them. (Thus my reluctance to use anything yellow as a container in hopes of attracting the cuke beetles -- that might indeed attract the pollinators, too.) I hope your garden won't be as infested with cuke beetles this summer as last year! The kind of cucurbits you planted may have been the lure for so many (I didn't check your list against the list in the link), so if you can avoid growing them again, maybe the beetles will be smaller in numbers and it won't be a losing battle to keep the numbers low enough that you can harvest most of what you plant. That's about all we can ask of nature! I have Crenshaw melons, tomatoes, and beans out in the garden right now and haven't seem any insects so far except for flea beetles. So when these pests show up (and I know they will) that's when I'll set out the baited traps. I'll report back occasionally on how well it's working. It would be great if you (and anybody else who tries it) could do that, too. Report success OR failure. People have a tendency to not think about insect problems until they show up in THEIR garden, so it's possible that some who aren't interested in killing every insect on their plants will look for a solution a bit later in the season. I've never had to deal with Japanese beetles, but a zapper over a koi or other pond sounds like a great way to get rid of them! Sounds like you have some fun projects to think about!
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sorry i thought the kw were a hybrid, obviously i am wrong. as to the trap crop, i do NOT need a trap crop! the kw brought the jb TO the garden! well it seems that way because i seldom have jb problems in the garden. the 4 beans are all in the same area, it is not the soil. my garden is well established with rich soil. an explaination will help explain the differences in size. the old favorite variety (ofv) i grew for years was planted at the same time next to the kw. the ofv seeds are old (from 2000 or 2001) so germination was way behind the kw seeds which were new seed from johnny's this year. that ofv was just emerging from the soil when the kw had been up for 10-12 days and then the ofv grew slower than the kw. as to the 2 new polish varieties, they were planted 3 1/2 weeks later than those other 2. they came up ok, not slow like the ofv but quick like kw, but they are smaller due to a late start. this is why the kw are so much taller on the trellis, the other 3 are catching up, it is not the soil. and yes alfie, perhaps you are correct. maybe the jb are going to the kw because it is the highest of the 4 pole beans but maybe kw tastes better to them? at any rate, i noticed yesterday the damage is not progressing as fast as it had been. i will still compare how the kw produce and taste. i have lot of kw seeds left and if kw does ok despite this i'll grow it again. thanks for your help, tom
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My beans usually get covered but they don't usually get really bad until just about the time we're through picking beans for the season. This year I've planted bush beans which are flowering now and pole beans which come later. I too would like to keep them under control. I usually end up pulling up the plants at the end of the season and burning them along with the larvae that ate all of the leaves. If I use a row cover how would the beans get pollinated? Iv'e only seen a few beetles so far and have hand picked them but like cucumber beetles they drop off the plant if you're not fast enough. I don't want to spray anything because I have 6 honey bee hives in the back yard. Do these beetles have any predators?
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anney
Original Author
13 years ago
If you mean this insect, it's a striped cucumber beetle. It prefers cucurbits, like cucumbers, squash, melons, etc.

is a mexican bean beetle. It looks like an orangish lady bug, sometimes pinkish, is a little larger than lady bugs and prefers to devour beans.

Neither are pests I want in my garden!
anney
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for that information about Love Lies Bleeding -- I got sidetracked. I really love the old-fashioned version with the pendulous racemes, though I haven't grown it.

I'll keep it in my notes as another lure crop for cucumber beetles next year -- it's new to me. This year I'm using Caserta squash, a zucchini, reputed to be loved by cuke beetles, to see if I can get the beetles to devour the fruits infused with red dye #28, which kills them.

I don't know if my plan will work though, since I have all kinds of flowers intercropped in the garden this year, some said to repel or attract aphids, bean beetles, cucumber beetles, and the white icicle radish I KNOW will attract flea beetles.

Once again, thanks.
roper2008
13 years ago
Yes, that's the beetle. Funny how they didn't bother my cucumbers.
I have not seen the mexican been beetle in my garden and hope I
never do. I took a picture of the Love Lies Bleeding. You cannot see
the beetles in this picture. There was not really a whole lot of them,
but this is the damage on leaves. The flower is very pretty, even gets
longer as the summer progresses. This is from last year.
jimster
13 years ago
Anney,

I've been wondering lately if red dye #28 would be effective against other beetles, not just cucumber beetles. Why not? We would just need to find a way to get them to eat it.

Jim
anney
Original Author
13 years ago
Yes, I'd like to know that, too, particularly for Mexican BBs. The dye effectively kills Mediterranean fruit flies through its photoactive characteristics, too. Red dye #28 has been determined to be safe for human consumption for many decades. The dye is called a "light-activated insecticide", meaning that the insect must first ingest it and then be exposed to sunlight through the insect's transparent gut. The light excites molecules inside the insect, which is believed to cause a chemical reaction that kills the insect.

The trick for Mexican bean beetles would be to ID a lure or "feeding stimulant" to which the dye could be added so they'd ingest it, maybe some sort of "wax bean party cocktail"!

To continue about the medfly, in the US, a yellow dye is added to the red dye to make it more lethal to the flies: SureDye works by ingestion and is composed of the red dye and D&C Yellow 7, 8. The yellow dye is added to the mixture to concentrate light inside a fly's transparent belly and thereby increase the transfer of light energy to the red dye. Chemically, the red dye is phloxine B and the yellow is uranine. They are similar in structure and members of the xanthene chemical group. SureDye is the product of PhotoDye International, a three-year-old company based in Linthicum, Maryland.

Scientists do not know exactly how this seemingly benign dye, used in lipsticks and edible drugs such as antacids, kills flies, but they do know that it must be ingested by a fly and that the satiated fly's gut must then be exposed to some level of light for it to have its toxic effect. Tests indicate that phototoxic dyes can be used selectively against fruit flies, since other organisms lack the transparent guts necessary for light to reach the dye.

It was found as early as 1928 that mosquito larva and some leaf miners could be killed through the absorption of photoactive dyes. Apparently, if mixed with sugar water it kills fire ants, too. Researchers in Hawaii are experimenting with developing lures and traps for the medflies.

Here is a link that might be useful: To Zap Medflies -- Red Dye, Updated Traps
jimster
13 years ago
"...other organisms lack the transparent guts necessary for light to reach the dye."

There's a clue as to which beetles it might work on.

This seems like a good subject for the amateur scientist.

Jim
pnbrown
13 years ago
Anney, did your plan with the wax beans work out?

FYI, a lure crop for Mexican Bean beetles

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FYI, a lure crop for Mexican Bean beetles

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