Cucumber Beetle trap V1

rockyonekc · July 11, 2013

Last year I had swarms of both striped and spotted cucumber beetles that wreaked havoc on my long beans, squash and of course my cucumbers. The beans I had growing up a bamboo teepee seemed to provide the perfect habitat for them and they flourished. It was my 1st real experience battling them, and they definitely won the day. Last year anyway.

Since I try to stay mostly organic, I spent a lot of time last winter researching how I might combat them this year. In addition to adding County Fair to my list of cucumbers, I also settled on building traps and using an attractant combined with Sevin to try and control their numbers. By keeping the poison confined in the trap, in theory it won't get into my garden ecosystem. It's at least a way of avoiding dusting everything in site with Sevin. Clove oil and tayuya root were both listed as potential attractants. I ended up ordering some tayuya root powder online to have on hand and ready for duty.

Today was the 1st day that I saw cucumber beetles in the garden. I noticed several striped beetles as I was watering this morning. I might have some spotted beetles too. Since I am colorblind, I need to capture one and get some help confirming if it's red or green. Friend or foe. :mad: So far I have found several ladybugs so I am glad I stopped and asked before just squishing them.

Anyway, I scrounged through the recycle dumpster at the kid's school on the way home from work and found some plastic beverage bottles that should do the trick. I drilled a hole for an s-hook from a broken bungee cord, and cut an opening in the side of the bottle with some heavy duty scissors. I also cut a couple strips off the top of a yellow trash bag and tied them to look a little like cucumber blossoms. Inside the bottle, I mixed about 1 tsp sevin, 1tbs of tayuya root powder, then just enough water to make it a thick paste. I hung them on my trellis near my cucumber plants.

I have no idea if this will work. I have never built or even used a trap before, and basically just made up this design on the fly. Anyone have experience or wisdom to share as I contemplate trap version 1.1?

My fake trash bag blossom came out pretty realistic at first glance.

rockyonekc · July 17, 2013

Thought I would update this in case there are people fighting the cucumber beetles and paying attention to my experiment.

The tayuya/seven slurry I started with was probably too strong. After several days of limited results, I ended up mixing up a spray bottle of liquid sevin according to the labeling for cucumber beetles and used it to wet about 1tbs of tayuya powder in each trap.

After just one day, there were 3-5 beetles in each trap. I probably squished 5 beetles on my plants for every 1 in the traps, so again, limited success in my book. Last night I picked most of the male flowers off the plants hoping that would make the yellow plastic in the traps more attractive. We'll see.

This is so frustrating. I delayed planting squash and cucumbers as a preventative tactic but it looks like it didn't help at all. Might have even made it worse since my friends and family are enjoying their garden fresh cukes while my late, tiny plants didn't get a head start to develop a lot of foliage before the onslaught began.

Hoping the county fair cukes survive as advertised and taste better than I am expecting.

tjg911 · July 17, 2013

Quote:

I probably squished 5 beetles on my plants for every 1 in the traps, so again, limited success in my book.

i was going to say why would that 1 bottle with a yellow pseudo flower attract a lot of them when there are dozens of yellow flowers out in the open?

i don't think there is anything organic that works short of floating row covers and how do you use them when you grow them on an A frame trellis?

i just stick with county fair cukes and get tons of cukes. too bad cuz i used to grow lots of different ones that i can't now. county fair is a good cuke but some of the long thin cukes i grew were really good.

tom

Mark0820 · July 17, 2013

I've read that you can fill bright yellow buckets with water and set them near plants cucumber beetles feed on. The beetles are attracted to yellow, so they fly into the bucket of water and drown. I've never tried it myself, so I have no idea how effective it is.

rockyonekc · July 30, 2013

Time for another update.

Shortly after my last update, I left for a wonderful family vacation to Colorado and just returned to my garden last Saturday. I was very surprised to find hardly any cucumber beetles around. There were many dead ones in the traps along with quite a few house type flies. I have shaken the trellises, ruffled the leaves and nothing, Nada. I managed to find 1 striped beetle while I was lifting up my zucchini leaves looking for squash bug eggs. Last year the cucumber beetles would almost swarm from the plants when I shook the trellis.

I must confess that before I left for vacation I sprinkled a little sevin dust around the stem of each of my zucchini plants to fight off squash bugs and SVB while I was away, and sprayed some squash bug nymphs on the bottom of 1 squash leaf. I can't imagine that small amount of sevin has much to do with the absence of cucumber beetles. I was careful to remove any flowers nearby to avoid attracting pollinators. I also did a soil drench with bt after I saw several cucumber beetles mating. Not sure if the larvae are affected by bt, but figured it couldn't hurt.

I went from a lot of activity 2 and a half weeks ago to hardly any today. So far, things are looking up for a good crop of a variety of cucumbers. I am starting to get female flowers and mini cukes so it shouldn't be long. Pictures coming soon. :-)

rockyonekc · July 30, 2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by tjg911

i was going to say why would that 1 bottle with a yellow pseudo flower attract a lot of them when there are dozens of yellow flowers out in the open?

I am hoping the answer is the tayuya root powder attractant. There are 3 traps in a 8x8' raised bed. I think pulling the male flowers helped too.

July 11, 2013	#1
rockyonekc Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: Zone 5b - Blue Springs, MO Posts: 78	Cucumber Beetle trap V1 Last year I had swarms of both striped and spotted cucumber beetles that wreaked havoc on my long beans, squash and of course my cucumbers. The beans I had growing up a bamboo teepee seemed to provide the perfect habitat for them and they flourished. It was my 1st real experience battling them, and they definitely won the day. Last year anyway. Since I try to stay mostly organic, I spent a lot of time last winter researching how I might combat them this year. In addition to adding County Fair to my list of cucumbers, I also settled on building traps and using an attractant combined with Sevin to try and control their numbers. By keeping the poison confined in the trap, in theory it won't get into my garden ecosystem. It's at least a way of avoiding dusting everything in site with Sevin. Clove oil and tayuya root were both listed as potential attractants. I ended up ordering some tayuya root powder online to have on hand and ready for duty. Today was the 1st day that I saw cucumber beetles in the garden. I noticed several striped beetles as I was watering this morning. I might have some spotted beetles too. Since I am colorblind, I need to capture one and get some help confirming if it's red or green. Friend or foe. :mad: So far I have found several ladybugs so I am glad I stopped and asked before just squishing them. Anyway, I scrounged through the recycle dumpster at the kid's school on the way home from work and found some plastic beverage bottles that should do the trick. I drilled a hole for an s-hook from a broken bungee cord, and cut an opening in the side of the bottle with some heavy duty scissors. I also cut a couple strips off the top of a yellow trash bag and tied them to look a little like cucumber blossoms. Inside the bottle, I mixed about 1 tsp sevin, 1tbs of tayuya root powder, then just enough water to make it a thick paste. I hung them on my trellis near my cucumber plants. I have no idea if this will work. I have never built or even used a trap before, and basically just made up this design on the fly. Anyone have experience or wisdom to share as I contemplate trap version 1.1? My fake trash bag blossom came out pretty realistic at first glance. Last edited by rockyonekc; July 11, 2013 at 11:45 PM.

July 17, 2013	#2
rockyonekc Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: Zone 5b - Blue Springs, MO Posts: 78	Thought I would update this in case there are people fighting the cucumber beetles and paying attention to my experiment. The tayuya/seven slurry I started with was probably too strong. After several days of limited results, I ended up mixing up a spray bottle of liquid sevin according to the labeling for cucumber beetles and used it to wet about 1tbs of tayuya powder in each trap. After just one day, there were 3-5 beetles in each trap. I probably squished 5 beetles on my plants for every 1 in the traps, so again, limited success in my book. Last night I picked most of the male flowers off the plants hoping that would make the yellow plastic in the traps more attractive. We'll see. This is so frustrating. I delayed planting squash and cucumbers as a preventative tactic but it looks like it didn't help at all. Might have even made it worse since my friends and family are enjoying their garden fresh cukes while my late, tiny plants didn't get a head start to develop a lot of foliage before the onslaught began. Hoping the county fair cukes survive as advertised and taste better than I am expecting. Last edited by rockyonekc; July 17, 2013 at 10:01 AM.

July 30, 2013	#5
rockyonekc Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: Zone 5b - Blue Springs, MO Posts: 78	Time for another update. Shortly after my last update, I left for a wonderful family vacation to Colorado and just returned to my garden last Saturday. I was very surprised to find hardly any cucumber beetles around. There were many dead ones in the traps along with quite a few house type flies. I have shaken the trellises, ruffled the leaves and nothing, Nada. I managed to find 1 striped beetle while I was lifting up my zucchini leaves looking for squash bug eggs. Last year the cucumber beetles would almost swarm from the plants when I shook the trellis. I must confess that before I left for vacation I sprinkled a little sevin dust around the stem of each of my zucchini plants to fight off squash bugs and SVB while I was away, and sprayed some squash bug nymphs on the bottom of 1 squash leaf. I can't imagine that small amount of sevin has much to do with the absence of cucumber beetles. I was careful to remove any flowers nearby to avoid attracting pollinators. I also did a soil drench with bt after I saw several cucumber beetles mating. Not sure if the larvae are affected by bt, but figured it couldn't hurt. I went from a lot of activity 2 and a half weeks ago to hardly any today. So far, things are looking up for a good crop of a variety of cucumbers. I am starting to get female flowers and mini cukes so it shouldn't be long. Pictures coming soon. :-) Last edited by rockyonekc; July 30, 2013 at 08:59 PM.

July 17, 2013	#4
Mark0820 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Cincinnati Posts: 907	I've read that you can fill bright yellow buckets with water and set them near plants cucumber beetles feed on. The beetles are attracted to yellow, so they fly into the bucket of water and drown. I've never tried it myself, so I have no idea how effective it is.