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East Longmeadow Massachusetts

Hey everyone, I have a question to ask and expect the answer to come from somebody who knows what they are talking about. Last season I lost an entire pumpkin plant to bacterial wilt caused by cucumber beetles. I lost a very special giant sunflower as well. I managed to contain them but in the end I had a horrible year. I noticed they are attached to the blooming flowers of male or female. I have my pumpkins set on each of my two plants for the season. I've been plucking off any new bloom the last couple days, and just now saw beetles are back. Am I hurting the general well-being of the plant by doing this? Will my pumpkin suffer and lose critical lbs? I prefer to not spray the chemicals I had to use last year if I can avoid it.

6/17/2016 8:31:02 AM

stoughton WI

I also pick the flowers after I have my kins set and as do many others, the pumpkins will not suffer from doing this, but your plants may suffer if you do not control the cuc beetles and squash bugs. cuc beatles do also chew on your leaves and all it takes is one bite for disease to be spread. most of us don't like to spray chemicals, but we have to. there may be some organic pesticides that may or may not work, you might want to try..

6/17/2016 10:06:26 AM

Bethlehem CT

Big country once my plants are big, I am not nearly as concerned about seeing cucumber beetles in the patch. (Bacterial wilt is transmitted primarily to young plants that have less than 4 or 5 leaves.) As the season progresses, I become more concerned with squash bugs and vine borers. You also have to look out for aphids and mites. Matt D has had his season ruined a couple of times now by aphids transmitting a virus. There are so many things that are out to ruin our season, it is a miracle we get anything at all to the scale.

6/17/2016 12:07:04 PM

Central NY

you could try two cloves of garlic mashed up into a gallon of water and spray...heard that works

6/17/2016 5:05:46 PM

Torrance, Ca.

Try the garlic Rick.


He he he!

6/17/2016 7:59:38 PM

Winthrop N Y

Garlic spray once a week works.Cardbroad 1foot by 2 foot spray painted yellow rub Vaseline a thin coat nail it on a post just above the plant I done it for years caught hundred of cucumber beetles. Made a new one every two weeks I put six per plant

6/17/2016 9:40:48 PM

Winthrop N Y

Garlic spray once a week works.Cardbroad 1foot by 2 foot spray painted yellow rub Vaseline a thin coat nail it on a post just above the plant I done it for years caught hundred of cucumber beetles. Made a new one every two weeks I put six per plant

6/17/2016 9:49:40 PM

stoughton WI

I use wisdom(bifen) and merit, not taking any chances on losing a plant

6/18/2016 12:02:50 AM

Minnesota(dw447@fastmail.fm)

I've used Garlic Barrier in the past and thought it was helpful, you may want to check it out. I like to stay away from chemicals in the garden as well.
In the past, I've also left the male flowers bloom on the plants, and found that the cucumber beetles would congregate there instead of the leaves. I don't know if this is true, but I thought the leaves would be the route for disease to enter the plant, and hopefully not the flowers(just a wild guess there).
Don Blacks suggestion about yellow cardboard with Vasaline is a good one. I've also done similar in the past.

6/18/2016 1:25:11 AM

East Longmeadow Massachusetts

Thank you for the great feed back. Yesterday there were cut beetles all over the place. I sprayed a "witches brew" of pesticides and used Sevin powder. There wasnt a single beetle this morning. Last year I had to use this spray as well but I already lost plants. I have garlic growing next to one of my pumpkin plants and there weren't any beetles yesterday or today. That plant isnt in bloom though yet. I did the garlic to try and deter the beetles I wonder if it worked.

6/18/2016 12:54:45 PM

Hanson Ma

This year at the first sight of cuke beetles I used sevin because I had it on hand. I then bought bonide tree and shrub. It's the same as merit but not as strong. These 2 things take care of cuke beetle squash bugs and SVB's pretty well.I know people don't like to use chamicals but were not growing for food. The amount of money going into your plants is tough to swallow when bugs take your prize winning hard work. I haven't had a problem for 3 weeks now and I'm just starting to see them come back but they're dead shortly after that.

6/18/2016 2:53:52 PM

WNC Usa

Sevin works.

Does Neem Oil work? Thanks

7/4/2016 10:52:56 PM

East Longmeadow Massachusetts

So the beetles are back and stronger then ever. There were dead bodies littering the ground within days of my last chemical treatment. I didn't see a single one for about 2 weeks. I've been seeing more and more. Then tonight I had to do some late night "vine keeping" and I saw hundreds all over. Many were in the middle of making more beetles. I crushed atleaat 50 and then sprinkled some sevin dust all over. Im out of my pesticide so I'll have to wait and see how dust does. I am going to try the garlic trick and the Vaseline on yellow board. I also am going to start popping off males and keep pumpkin completly covered with no visible skin. She's already 52 inches around and growing a few inches a day!! Pics in diary

7/5/2016 12:36:36 AM

Central Illinois

Use Bifen IT and if you have a blower mist with that, a leaf blower will work great

http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/bifen-it-p-226.html?gclid=Cj0KEQjwte27BRCM6vjIidHvnKQBEiQAC4MzrVbrO1URJnwILnbzqONuNJkSM6iFXkte2uSDZCW2SU4aAnow8P8HAQ&sub_id=553

7/5/2016 3:39:23 PM

Central Illinois

when they start flying blast em right out of the air

7/5/2016 3:40:21 PM