I don't have a good solution for you. We always have them, but in our rural area, if I even could find something that would work on them, and if it did kill them, more would come in the next day. If you're in a more "civilized" area than mine, you might not have that issue. I do use certain techniques to try to discourage them. For one thing, I mulch heavily which seems to impede their ability to roam from plant to plant in their larval stage. I also have a gazillion spiders in my garden. Actually, they'e everywhere. It wouldnt be an exaggeration, I think, to say we have millions of spiders on our property. They are everywhere in every shape, size or color you can imagine. I read somewhere once that some researchers think you may have up to 250,000-500,000 spiders per acre in land that is not sprayed with pesticides, and I don't doubt it. We have tons of wolf spiders in the garden and they do a lot of pest control too.

Another technique I use is delayed planting. I don't plant cucumbers and other cucurbits in the ground until I take out the cool-season crops like onions and potatoes. That way, when the first round of cucumber beetles hatch out, I don't have cucurbits in the ground yet for them and they move on elsewhere.

I'm going to link the ATTRA document on cucumber beetle control. It is full of fascinating data, including the use of certain cucurbits as trap crops. You plant those cucurbits to attract them away from the ones you actually are going to grow for your family and spray a poison on the trap crop to kill them. Since the research shows that they often attack the earliest cucurbits and it is best to plant the trap plants first, this might be a technique to use next year, but not so much this year. I also don't know if it will attract them away from your beans.

Some of the info in this publication is from reserach conducted right here in Oklahoma and I find it interesting.

I don't know of much of anything organic that kills cucumber beetles except for the biological agent beauveria bassiana, which I probably am misspelling. I think it is available in Mycotrol. I've never seen Mycotrol in a store, only from online retailers. I've never heard of spinsosad killing cucumber beetles. Although spinosad is good with some insects, there are many on which it has little to no effect. Py-ganic might kill them, but I have cats and cats are highly susceptible to pyrethrims so I don't use Py-ganic.

There's likely chemical pesticides that will kill them, but I don't use them so have no first-hand knowledge of what they would be.

I feared huge bug invasions this year with the ongoing drought, so one of my drought-mitigation decisions was to plsant "County Fair" cucumber because it is strongly tolerant of the bacterial wilt spread by cucumber beetles. So far it appears to be working as I still have healthy cucumber plants. I haven't seen a single cucumber beetle since late April or early May and we usually have them all over. We are having large numbers of some pests, but not necessarily large numbers of all pests.

Maybe all my cucumber beetles are in your garden eating your bean plants. If that is the case, I apologize and humbly beg for your forgiveness.

Next year, I'm going to try some of the ideas in the ATTRA publication so I can grow other cukes in addition to "County Fair".

Also, if you go to the Vegetable Forum and do a search on cucumber beetles and red dye, you should find one or more discussions there about using red dye as part of a cucumber beetle eradication program.

More and more, I am switching to using row covers to exclude pests, at least until the plants start blooming. If I can get the plants to the blooming stage before pests start attacking them, then the plants have a good chance of being strong enough to withstand an onslaught of pests and, perhaps, even produce a crop before the pests kill them.

I also have had pretty good luck this year with the spined soldier bugs. They are in my garden and are voraciously hungry and are taking out lots of pests, for which I am very grateful.

Good luck,

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: ATTRA Publication on Cucumber Beetles

they have cucumbers right next to the beans and they're preferring the beans. They have now turned to the bean pods.

I think I'm being overrun with cuke beetles, too. Being a bit of a dummy on pests (and diseases -- I find ignorance is bliss ;-) ), I need to catch one or two of the things to bring inside and compare to google pics.

Diane

Diane, There's good photos of them on the ATTRA link above. It has at least one photo of several of the differnt kinds. There's spotted ones and striped ones. They're about the size of lady bugs and have an icky yellowish-greenish color. At our place, they get all over virtually anything that flowers. Most years we have them all over, but I haven't noticed many here this year.

Quailhunter, Since it is a cooler day today why not try neem or insecticidal soap on them today or this evening? At this point, you have nothing to lose and maybe you can save your bean crop. I wonder why they prefer the beans to the cukes? That's kind of odd. Usually on beans I have Mexican bean beetles but not cucumber beetles. This year, knock on wood, I've only seen one Mexican bean beetle.

If I had them on my beans plants, I'd take out either my shop vac or hand-held portable vac and try to suck them up off the plants. Sometimes you can do that but other times they flee when they see/hear you with the vac.

The irritating thing about cucumber beetles is that they move from one type of plant to another to another to another so often once they establish themselves in your garden, they don't leave. They just move from the beans to the cukes to the melons to the flowers, etc. Some people here have trouble with them in their larval form on corn but I've never had that happen in my garden.

Diane, Do you have Mexican Bean Beetles? They look a lot like Cucumber beetles, so if you know what a Mexican Bean Beetle looks like, then you pretty much already know what a spotted Cucumber Beetle looks like. I see the spotted cuke beetles more than I see the striped ones.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Mexican Bean Beetle

Nope, I've not seen any mexican bean beetles. Hadn't even heard of them before. What I'm thinking are cuke beetles are the striped ones. I've seen both kinds before but these are these are striped. I sure hope it turns out to be something else because there are a lot of them. Either that or there are just a few, very determined ones that follow my trek through the yard and gardens, and make themselves very visible.

I'll make it a point to catch a couple this week for IDing.

Diane

Striped bugs are among my last favorite bugs. All the striped bugs I see here do damage: striped blister beetles, Colorado potato beetles and striped cucumber beetles. However, in defense of striped blister beetles, even though they do eat plant foliage, sometimes in an incredibly fast manner, they also eat grasshopper eggs.

I'm having a terrible year with the cucumber beetles also, just when I got the squash bugs under control. This was very helpful Dawn, and it also explains why I got a cupful of beetles when I left my chai tea out in the garden. I thought they were attracted to the vanilla, but now I know it was the cinnamon, allspice, and cloves! Where can I get the sticky stuff for the yellow traps? And where are the cheapest row covers?

The sticky stuff you need to make yellow traps is shown on the link below. You may or may not be able to find it locally. You also can buy yellow sticky traps but they are pretty expensive.

As for row covers, I have no idea where the cheapest ones are, but I bought mine (a roll that is, I think, 500' long and 10' wide) online from FarmTek. If you can find some row cover locally, you won't have to pay shipping.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tree Tanglefoot Products At Amazon.com

If you google cucumber beetle traps, you will find this link. Essentially its tayuya root powder mixed with liquid sevin and put in jars around the garden. The cucumber beetles are supposed to be very attracted to it, they fly down in it and eat the sevin / root powder mixture and die. I have never tried it but I do think about it every year when there are so many of them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cucumber Beetle Traps

I guess it's the heat? I only have squash thriving right now. Well, I DID but the cucumber beetles are all over three of the plants. They now have powdery mildew. They possibly have some type of wilt. Apparently, the bugs are bringing in diseases. I did not mark my plants and wish I would have. My yellow summer squash is not threatened by them and are growing well.

Tonight I noticed some beautiful midnight blue smallish dragon flies hanging around. I know dragon flies like mosquitoes but I wonder what it is on my plants that they're eating. I noticed the ants and the cuke beetles gathered in the same area.

Since I am organic or .. can't afford to do anything and this is a first garden becoming established I'm just letting things happen hoping there is a pest that will take out the cucumber beetle? I manage to capture some every time I go out but there are far too many to eradicate.

I know that no pesticides or anything non-organic has been introduce to this area for more than eight years. The bug response and changes have been almost instantaneous and, honestly, has been a joy to watch evolve.

I am more concerned about the diseased squash in the ground. I would prefer to pull it but for the time it is acting as a trap crop for the beetles leaving my yellow summer squash which is producing very nicely.

bon

Bon, I am sure that the cucumber beetles transmit lots of diseases. The main ones that they usually transmit to cucurbits are bacterial wilt and cucumber mosaic virus. They also often transmit several different virus infections to beans. That's the huge issue with cucumber beetles and the only solution I know of is to grow under row covers that exclude the cucumber beetles or to spray the cucumber plants with Spinosad or some other botanical (organic) insecticide like Pyganic or Neem. Or, you can try growing a cucumber variety that has been bred to have a high tolerance of bacterial wilt.

Most years I have cucumber beetles all over the place from February or March through about November. This year, I didn't see a single one until August. It was wonderful, and it likely never will happen again. While they weren't here earlier, they're here now and I was not happy to see them appear. In the absence of cucumbers, the cucumber beetles will visit just about any other plant you have. I just hate them.

Some beneficial insects such as green lacewings, lady bugs and spined soldier bugs feed upon the cucumber beetle eggs or larva and that will help control the cucumber beetles, but here in our rural area, more just fly in every day so you have to have tons of beneficials to maintain any control of the highly mobile cucumber beetles.

Birds and bats will eat cucumber beetles, so putting up bird houses or a bat house can help attract those predators to your garden. I also have a birdbath and bird feeders near my garden to attract more songbirds. My garden is full of birds right now, and I think they are feasting on grasshoppers and other pests....maybe that includes cucumber beetles.

Dragonflies and damselflies eat lots of flying insects, but mostly small ones like mosquitoes and midges. They also will eat craneflies/mayflies, some butterflies and moths, and even smaller dragonflies or damselflies.

Dragonflies are one of my favorite predators and because we have several ponds (albeit they have mostly been empty this year), we generally have tons of dragonflies and damselflies. They fly back and forth from the ponds to the garden all day long, and often sit on the tomato cages or trellises for watching for insects to prey upon.

Dawn

We ate all of the slicing cucumbers we could eat and I made 40 something pints of pickles from the pickling cucumbers and I didn't see one cucumber beetle all season and no potato beetles. The Japanese beetles were very light this year, and I had fewer flea beetles than ever. Harlequin bugs and squash bugs were bad, and I had a few more grasshoppers than normal.

OMG! Plsnt Sunflowers - they LOVE, LOVE, LOVE mine! Second favorite is Golden Crownbeard. What is it about yellow flowers? I have found a few on multi-colored Zinnias, but not many.

Every morning, I make a round of the garden just to check things out. I usually end up spending a lot of time at the Sunflower stand, squishing Cucumber Beetles (I get the Spotted variety). They are getting more elusive as they have gotten smarter about my quest. I do it in the morning when they are a little more sluggish. By mid-morning they are totally clued into my intentions and I get very few not smart enough to evade the thumb and forefinger.

I always get the largest numbers in the fall. I've found very few in spring and summer. They could care less about the cucumbers, but prefer the flowering plants.

Sunflowers seem to be good "trap crops" for them, and also for the Wheel Bugs.

I have so many honeybees right now. I've never seen so many before. Also Bumblebees. Had the biggest, fattest lady beetles this year, too. They came and are back again, eating the aphids on the milkweeds and anything else that appeals to them.

I garden organically, too. No chemicals or herbicides. Not even insecticidal soap. It can kill my butterflies, moths, and their larvae.

I, too, have lots of birds. They, of course, love the Sunflower seeds, and Coneflower seeds, Maximilian Sunflower seeds, too. All in all, nature seems to do the job that I struggle with, so I invite all wildlife that is available in the city to the garden.

I have lots of Praying Mantids right now. They seem to be hanging out low to the ground this year among the flowers and shrubs, so I don't know what they are eating. Does anyone know if they also eat Cucumber Beetles?

Susan

Thanks for the tips!

Carol, It is odd how certain bugs will be bad in one part of the state and not in another, isn't it?

I don't remember seeing any flea beetles this year, but had more Japanese Beetles than usual. Most years I see 2 or 3 JBs. This year I saw 5 or 6. I only saw 1 or 2 Harlequin beetles, and not very many squash bugs at all. We made up for it by having oodles of grasshoppers and spider mites.

I don't believe I had as many grasshoppers as Dorothy had though, and not as many blister beetles as many of the folks in NE OK.

Susan, Many cucurbits have flowers that are various shades of yellow, so that might explain why cucumber beetles are drawn to yellow flowers. I used to plant sunflowers for their beauty and put them right in the veggie garden. Now I plant them as a trap crop away from the garden for the sole purpose of drawing certain pest insects away from the veggies and herbs.

I have lots of lady bugs too. They mostly are on the southern peas eating pea aphids, I assume.The green lacewing population finally has reached a good level again and I see them flying around the garden a lot. I don't know what they're eating, and I don't care....as long as they are gobbling up lots of the bad bugs, I am happy.

We have lots of honeybees and other bees now too, but nothing compared to the huge numbers of them we have in spring when all the fruit trees are blooming. We have tons of butterflies and moths, and still are seeing a lot of hummingbirds migrating through.

I don't know if praying mantids eat cucumber beetles, but I would assume they do. Praying mantids in general will eat virtually everything, including all other beneficial insects and other praying mantids.

Dawn

Most Green Lacewing adults don't eat aphids, but some species are predaceous. In our gardens, however, it is usually just the larvae that eat aphids and other small insects, eggs, aphids, mealybugs, etc. The larvae are also referred to as "aphid lions" and are similar in appearance to Ladybug larvae. The exception is that both Ladybug adults and larvae eat aphids and other small bodied insects, while most commonly, its only the Lacewing larvae that consume insects and aphids. The adult Lacewing usually feeds on nectar, aphid honeydew, and pollen. In other words, it's vegetarian in comparison to its carnivorous larvae.

(I wish they fed on Cucumber Beetles, lol!)

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Green Lacewing

Wow. I checked today and my small yellow squash is beginning to rot. Darn bugs!

I was wondering if some of the beetles on beans might be the bean leaf beetle. I have a horrible time with them in my garden and they are a huge pest of beans and come in a large variety of colors ranging from yellow, green, to bright red/orange. They are closely related to cucumber beetles and look quite a bit like them. Below is a link.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bean leaf beetle link.