Control and Prevention

How to Get Rid of Cucumber Beetles

• Inspect newly planted cucurbit plants for the presence of this beetle; be watchful when plants are seedlings.
• Use yellow sticky traps to catch cucumber beetles.
• Knock beetles to the ground and catch them with a piece of cardboard placed under the plant. Or, use a handheld vaccuum to suck up the beetles. They are very hard to hand pick, but it is easier to hand pick them with yellow gloves coated in petroleum jelly.
• Cover seedlings with row covers, though you must remove during blossoming time several hours each day to allow pollination.
• Few insecticides can be used on cucurbit plants because they are very sensitive. They would need to be used when plants are beginning to emerge through the soil. Please contact your local cooperative extension for a list of approved insecticides for your area.
• Folk advice from The 1963 Old Farmer’s Almanac states that nasturtiums and wood ashes are effective against cucumber beetles.

GrowVeg.com/CamPixie on Flickr Creative Commons. Use the above tips to keep the striped cucumber beetle from wreaking havoc in your garden.

Prevent Cucumber Beetles

• If you till your garden in the late fall, you will expose cucumber beetles hiding there to harsh winter conditions and reduce their populations next year. Tilling has the added benefit of making the soil easier to work in the spring.
• Where cucumber beetles are a problem, let the beetles come out of hiding and plant late. They have a knack for finding vulnerable seedlings. When yours are up and growing, the cucumber beetles will be gone, fooled into thinking you don’t have any cucumbers in your garden.
• Natural predators include beneficial insects like braconid wasps, some nematodes, and soldier beetles.
• See more natural remedies for controlling cucumber beetles on our page for getting rid of pests naturally.
• Companion planting can be helpful to keep pests away. Plant tansy to repel cucumber beetles.
• Once bacterial disease has entered the plant, there’s very little that you can do. If it’s bacterial wilt, you’ll see the leaves dry up and the plant will quickly wilt and die. Take prevention for next year as described above.