Good
morning, This year has been a real buggy one. Starting with the
caterpillars that ravaged my winter seed beds all the way up to the
present with cucumber beetles. Most of the bugs have been relatively
easy to control save for the cucumber beetles. They are beginning to
get me a bit worried.
In
years past I have used cold pressed neem oil and thought it worked
rather well. Maybe it was a smaller infestation and the oil
properties of the neem oil suffocated them. This year it is like they
give me an obscene gesture after spraying them with the cold pressed
and continue eating away. I used spinosad once on the cukes and the
butternut squash but I have a huge reluctance. This is because the
spray directions are to wait 1 day to harvest for cucumbers and 3 for
the other cucurbits. Just having to hold gives me pause, because how
safe can it be. Another reason is, it appears insects can build
immunity to the stuff fairly quickly and suggest not to use spinosad
more than a few times a year. And the last big reason is after 3 days
of no harvest in the summer squash the squash would be huge. Chickens
say yum!!!
The
spinosad slowed them down but in quick haste were back to pre-spray
levels. I do not think a few spraying s would control these guys.
Besides after one day of no harvest, I had small logs that I could
either cut into lumber or build a raft. So I do not think spinosad
will become a permanent part of my pest arsenal.
A
web search mentions a number of cultural controls. These all sound
good but they would be most affective before the cucumber beetles
population are what they are in the garden. The cultural controls
are a trap crop, spraying the leaves with surround (kaolin clay),
Sticky yellow tape with cucumber beetle attractant, vacuuming or
netting the beetles and the use of row covers.
Of
these cultural controls I do the row covers. Exclusion is probably
the best “pesticide” and is very effective on most crops. The
cucurbit family adds a twist, they need to be pollinated by hand or
bees. In which both cases the covers need to be removed in order to
be pollinated. Needless to say the beetles say “coooool”. I had
some cosmetic clay (made from kaolin) and spayed my cucumber vines.
This is to supposedly make it less palatable to the bugs. I do not
think it would hurt, will evaluate. Did spray didn't work
With
a trap crop, the use of spinosad or any other wait to harvest sprays
would not be a problem because this crop would be the “sacrificial
lamb” so to speak and would not be harvested. At this time it
would be like putting the cart before the horse.
Sticky
yellow tape and trapping would help but I am looking for something to
give me a little advantage now. There does not seem to be many
organic approved sprays for cucumber beetles. Pyrethrin sprays are
listed. This is made from a flower and is a very powerful
insecticide. It appears to degrade very quickly and there is no
holding be fore harvest. I hope to find some in town otherwise to the
internet I go. Ah yess just when ya think the learning curve is
mellowing along comes the next wake up call. Gotta love a challenge.
I
leave the above notes as recorded to relate my thinking process. When
I get quite confused and frustrated I revert back to my fail safe
position, operator error. What am I doing wrong? This is the easiest
thing to change. Once I did this the solution jumped out at me. I
checked into back emails written at the time I first started to use
cold pressed neem oil, and yes it was a formidable population of
cucumber beetles and the neem oil worked spectacularly. What was I
doing wrong?
It
was simple, taking the advice of the folks that sell me my cold
pressed neem oil, I purchased some karanja oil that is supposed to
enhance the cold pressed and is also an extender. It is supposed to
make a gallon of neem oil go further.
Besides
not getting the cucumber beetle knock down, I was also getting
foliage burn (I thought this could be due to warm evening temps).
Well I decided to skip using the kranja and go straight cold pressed.
With one spraying I can see a definite thinning of the horde. I
expect one or two more applications and I can calm down. Along with
no leaf burn!!Oh yes, breath deep and count to ten works, every
time!!!!
The
garden is producing beyond my wildest dreams. We are taking a huge
abundance to market, sell a whole lot and bring bunches home to
process into canned and dried goods. Does make for some long days. I
was a bit afraid to cut back on plantings last fall when I did my
yearly garden planning, because I did not have a feel for what to
cut back to. This fall will be different. The drip is making all the
difference in the world.!!
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