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Re: Help!!! My green beans are under attack!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Margaret,

> Went out to the community garden today and found one of my beds of beans
> covered with yellow bugs with short spikes all over their soft bodies, they
> had decimated the leaves.  WHAT ARE THEY!!!!!!!!!!!!  And how do I get rid of
> them so that I can replant, also do they attack anything else?????????
> Margaret - Md(zone 7)

Here is some info gleaned from Rodales' Pest & Disease Problem Solver ...

You have described the larvae of Mexican Bean Beetles, /Epilachna variviestis./

The adults look like lady beetles, but have 16 black spots arranged in three
rows across the wing covers.  The eggs are yellow barrels, laid on end in
clusters of 40-60 on the undersides of leaves.

They eat all kinds of beans, including cowpeas, limabeans, snap beans and
soybeans.  They don't feed on anything else, AFAIK.

They can have up to four generations per year.  They overwinter on garden or
field debris so if there were a lot of beans in the community garden or nearby
fields then this is the source of them.

There are biological controls: spined soldier bugs, /Podisus maculiventris,/ for
early generations and parasitic wasps, /Pediobius foveolatus,/ for later
generations.  Diverse plantings (flowers and herbs) and allowing a few weeds to
grow and flower in the paths attracts predators and parasites.

In a small bean patch daily hand picking can reduce the damage, but small plants
don't stand much of a chance from a heavy infestaion.  There are resistant
cultivars such as Wade and Logan snap beans or Black Valentine lima beans.

For replanting, clean up the area of all old bean plants and other debris,
which you can bury in the soil.  Cover your resown bean bed with reemay to keep
the beetles off.  Once direct sowed beans come up start checking them and
handpicking larvae and adults.  If that isn't working then make weekly sprayings
with neem to control the beetles, getting the undersides of the leaves where the
beetles like to feed.  Once the plants are larger they can withstand a few
beetles and you can take the cover off, which I think you need to do so the
beans can set.

An early season sowing to avoid the worst of the beetles is a good strategy for
southern gardeners.  Planting a trapcrop of soybeans and destroying them when
they become infested is a good technique too.

Good luck!

   ____________________
  |                    |
  |     Bob Carter     | Kootenay Bay, BC, Canada
  |  bcarter@awinc.com | Zone 6b
  |____________________|


Ghosts are merely unsubstantiated roomers.

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