Cucumber Beatles
Melon, squash, and cucumber vines may be protected from the attacks of
cucumber beetles until they are beginning to "vine" or "run," after
which time there is less danger of their being injured or falling
victims to the dreaded wilt disease. For these little pests not only
destroy the vines themselves but carry infection from vine to vine.
Once infected there is no hope for the vine. So the sane thing is
to prevent the insects from reaching the vines while small. Infection
after the vines have developed is not so serious as while they are
small because the disease has less time in which to be destructive
before the fruit forms.
Cucumber beetles, both dotted and striped, are the worst pests of cucumbers
and melons not only because they and their larvae devour the seedlings
but because the adults carry wilt infection from diseased to
healthy plants which usually die just before the fruits are ready
to gather. Moth balls and tobacco dust are fair repellents and individual
hill protectors are useful until the vines begin to "run," but destruction
of the over-wintering adults is a great help. The best .way to destroy
the adults is as follows:
Six weeks before it is safe to sow these crops in the open, sow seed
in coldframes or individual hill boxes placed near where the crops are
to be grown. Protect the plants at night and in cold weather but
leave them open to the sky during favorable weather. The beetles
will begin to arrive as soon as the plants break through the soil
and will lay their eggs on the young plants. In the late afternoon
sneak up on the lee side or the shady side and suddenly close the
frame at the same time scattering a quantity of cyanogas proportioned
to the cubic contents of the frame. These two operations must be
almost simultaneous because the insects are exceedingly spry and
will take wing on sight or smell of a person.
Keep the frame closed until the next morning. The poisonous gas given
off by this chemical will kill the insects confined in the frame.
Each morning when the weather is not too cold for the vines open
the frame: to catch another lot of beetles. The more killed
before the outdoor season opens the fewer there will be to attack
the crops.
In early fall start another series of frame traps to catch the beetles
after frost has killed the vines in the open ground. Thousands may
thus be destroyed before winter sets in.
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Garden Pests
