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Santa Cruz, CA

Ok, I'm trying to understand those little bugs. If they eat the pumpkin leaf and it has Merit or Neem Oil on it they will likely die. But, they have already chewed on the leaf and spread possible disease to the plant? or are we worried about all the eggs they are laying under the leaves and when they hatch, what a leaf eating problem we will have? Thanks for straightening this out. -Creek

6/7/2007 7:19:56 PM

Eastern Pennsylvania

they will transmit the disease by eating. That is why I use Merit as a control and also a contact like Sevin or Triazicide to stop them dead hopefully before they take a bite.

6/8/2007 1:46:16 PM

Wood River, IL (kennyw_49@yahoo.com)

When you say Triazicide, do you mean the "once & done insect killer"? That is the only Triazicide I can find around here.

Thanks

Kenny

6/8/2007 2:28:52 PM

Anamosa, IA BPIowegian@aol.com

Those beetles have been my biggest problem the last few years. This year I am using a 3 way approach. I'm sprinking garlic powder around as a repellent, Merit to kill any that chew on my plants and contact dust to kill them before they chew. I rotate between Sevin and Eight (premethrin) so I can get any that are resistant to one of the dusts. So far I have only seen three beetles in the patch so far, and 2 were flying away.

6/11/2007 1:19:21 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Creek,

YES -on both counts. We're trying to eliminate both the present threat & the future threat. All insecticides must be ingested to work. Hence no manufacturer ever offers a guarantee. All we can do is get out early & often to keep the majority of the bad guys away. The earlier the better since young pests haven't bred yet & they are most easily killed so we can use less & lower level toxins. Once they get big the problems are grossly magnified.

6/11/2007 8:20:10 PM