Re: Cucumber Beetles

In a message dated 7/9/99 8:33:28 AM Eastern Daylight Time, sven@magma.ca 
writes:

> Does anyone know if cucumber beetles on the female flowers really do any 
> damage to the future pumpkin? I have noticed some cuc beetles on my plants 
> but they seem to be only in the flowers. At pollination time I normally 
pick 
> out the bugs out of the females and squish em before tying the bloom closed 
> again on the female after pollination. As it is not likely a good idea to 
> spray directly into the flowers should I spray the entire plant or not? My 
> plants do not appear to be getting damaged by the little buggers and are 
> growing real fast and I am not sure that spraying the whole plant is 
needed. 
> Should I assume that the bugs are not bad enough and watch carefully for 
> plant damage and spray when they become serious or should I spray now and 
> eliminate what ever I can. I am wondering if the bugs chew any vital parts 
of 
> the female bloom during the stage at pollination as I usually have to poke 
a 
> few out right at the base where the flower meets the little pumpkin.
>  Any thoughts or experience would be appreciated.
>  
>  Glenn

What they do is EAT the pollen. And I mean EAT! I almost could not pollinate 
anything last year because they WIPED OUT just about every grain of pollen in 
every male flower. The stamons were clean! They are also eating the pollen 
off your lobes in your females, which will certainly hurt pollination, and 
probably chew into the lobes as well, which could damage your fruit. I have 
had almost no problems with CB on the leaves, but HUNDREDS in the flowers! Of 
course spraying in the flowers will wipe out your bee population too, so it 
seems the only solution is to protect ALL flowers with nylon stocking 
sections (and/or tie the petals closed) before they open! The ones you don't 
protect, you could pick (males only of course!), but leave about 8 males for 
each female. It is a lot of work, but the only solution I can come up with.


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