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applestar
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Spotted and striped cucumber beetles

I get both spotted cucumber beetles and striped cucumber beetles on all my cucurbits - cucumbers, squash, melons.

While annoying, the tiny striped cucumber beetles seem to be relatively harmless, though I will go ahead and catch and squish or stick on duct tape. The striped ones are mostly inside the flowers and probably eating pollen and nectar.

But I have developed a true loathing for the larger spotted cucumber beetles. EVERY SINGLE TIME, I find wilted leaf with spotted cucumber beetle inside and wilted length of a new vine. Or if I see a wilted leaf or vine, there are spotted cucumber beetles nearby. :evil:

I'm guessing they infect the plant with some kind of wilting disease when they feed. I'm wondering if I need to be diligently cutting off the wilted leaves and vines to prevent the disease from spreading along the vine. I've found entire lengths of dead vine recently, some side vines back to the node of main vine, and one vine all the way down to the ground... though powdery mildew IS starting to take hold so it might not be all caused by the cucumber beetles.

The damage they cause individually is worse than the relatively HUGE adult squash / leaffotted /stink bugs (and their numerous juvies when the eggs hatch) :x

imafan26
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I have been lucky I have never seen one or maybe we don't have them. If we don't have them, don't send any. I do have leaf footed bugs, they are stinkers and they are so many of them, the plants don't have much of a chance.

pepperhead212
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This is why I only grow County Fair cukes - resistant to bacterial wilt. All else dies from that.

Taiji
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Is this the striped cuke beetle? First time I've had them. They are only on the tomatillo plants; they ignore all squash, cukes and everything. First year I've had tomatillos. Whatever they are, they have a larval stage that is really slimy and disgusting. Maybe this is just something that resembles the cucumber beetle.
Clipboard.jpg

pepperhead212
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The striped cucumber beetle that I see has black stripes down the sides, in addition to the one down the center.

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rainbowgardener
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If you click on Taiji's picture to enlarge it, the beetle does have side stripes. They seem a little narrower than I would expect, but there is a lot of variation between different species.

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applestar
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That's a kind of a potato beetle -- NOT the more familiar Colorado Potato beetle. Let me see... ah ha! -- THREE-LINED potato beetle :arrow: https://extension.unh.edu/resources/fil ... ep1517.pdf

Taiji
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I think you hit the nail on the head. The part about them ignoring potatoes and tomatoes in favor of tomatillos is right on. Mine are a little more yellowish than orangish. Those disgusting larvae are just what I saw. I've never seen them til planting tomatillos. I don't think I'll plant them anymore though.

I wonder if I drove out into the wilderness and planted some tomatillo seeds if the beetle would still find them?! I'm practically in the wilderness here as it is. :)

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applestar
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This is a good resource for organic control of spotted and striped cucumber beetles — I learned a few things I didn’t know before :wink:

Managing Cucumber Beetles in Organic Farming Systems - eXtension
https://articles.extension.org/pages/64 ... ng-systems



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