The cucumber beetles seem to be winning. They've riddled my Zucchini plants with holes, and I'm afraid they might have already got the wilt disease these beetles spread. To my dismay, I've read that the eggs they lay into the soil hatch grubs which eat at the roots of the plants.
My hand-picked seems to be cutting down their numbers, though. The night before I caught a hundred and fifteen beetles, and twenty-eight the next morning.
Last night I only caught thirty bugs off the plants, and five the next morning.
So if I'm diligent in picking off bugs, I might get rid of most of them. But I'm worried about those grubs. I've read up on it and might try buying some beneficial nematodes, which burrow into the soil and eat the grubs (as well as other pests like fleas, ants, gnats, roaches, termites, etc!). I'm also probably going to have to plant new Zucchini, if these are already sickened.
06 June 2010
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