2 Green Thumbs
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Cucumber beetle...HELP!!

Went on a pest hunt tonight in the garden with my lovely wife, all of our plants look great right now except the melon patch ( watermelon, pumkins, and catelope ) they all have some bottom leafs that are turning yellowish and have holes in them, heck even some of the huge top leafs have holes in them. So I start looking real close and HOLY MOLY there were cucumber beetles in droves on the flowers and buds and under some leafs, many looked to be mating or maybe just catching a free ride from there friend, I picked and squished for an hour and a half but I know I did not get them all. Any suggestions before I go and by a bag of SEVIN like the Purdue website recommended?? Also interesting I seen a few soldier beetles around the melon patch too, which after researching I found that they are the cucumber beetles biggest predator, so I am glad I let them live...

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rainbowgardener
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Here's a nice article on organic control of cucumber beetles:

[url=https://yardener.com/YardenersPlantProblemSolver/DealingWithPestInsects/PestInsectsInTheVegetableGarden/CucumberBeetles/SolutionsforCucumberBeetles]organic control of cucumber beetles[/url]

If you use the Sevin, you will kill cucumber beetles AND the soldier beetles and other things that might prey on them. Then when the cucumber beetles come back later, there will be nothing around to help control them.

Here's a couple articles about the Sevin:

https://www.dontspraycalifornia.org/carbarylog.htm

https://www.healthyworld.org/sevin.html

Sevin is harmful to humans, to the environment, to all the aquatic life in the rivers and streams (once it washes off your plants into the soil and water table), to all the beneficial insects that would otherwise be protecting your plants and pollinating them, destroys honeybees, etc.

Your signature line says I love the outdoors. If that's true you might want to re-consider poisoning it, without even having tried any harmless options.

2 Green Thumbs
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Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2012 6:21 pm
Location: West Lafayette, Indiana

Thank you for the reply, I read through your links and am gonna try the NEEM tomorrow and see if it works.

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rainbowgardener
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Good choice! Just remember the Neem is not a poison and doesn't kill on contact. When the leaf eating insect ingests it from where you spray it on leaves, it is taken in to their system where it works something like a hormone blocker. Disrupts their systems so they can't eat or mate. So the population starts dropping. It may take a week or two to see that it is working.

But be a little careful, once the oil is dry on the leaves, it is harmless to honeybees, because they don't eat leaves. But if you would happen to spray it ON a honeybee, it would kill it just by clogging up the spiracles (breathing passages). So apply it in the evening after the honeybees have gone home, if you have bees in your garden.



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