[Market-farming] Cucumber Beetles] Surround WP for corn earworm control

Allan Balliett igg at igg.com
Wed Sep 8 08:50:56 EDT 2004


Bill -

What more do you know about cucumber beetles? Do they actually have 
natural enemies? (Or did they at one point?)  Are there practical 
controls for them in the organic arena? -Allan

>Just a fine point but it's unlikely that cucumber beetles were feeding on
>the corn silks. It was probably western corn rootworm beetle, which looks
>like cucumber beetles (yellow/black stripes, same size, shape). To
>distinguish them, look at the belly. If it's black, it's cucumber beetle. If
>it's yellow, it's corn rootworm beetle. It's important to be able to
>distinguish them because they cause different problems and present different
>risks. For example, cuke beetles can transmit viral and bacterial diseases
>to cucurbit crops. Corn rootworm beetles are not known to. Cucumber beetles
>don't normally feed on corn silks but western (and northern and southern)
>corn rootworm beetles feed voraciously on corn silks.
>
>Bill Shoemaker
>Sr Research Specialist, Food Crops
>Univ of Illinois - St Charles Hort Research Center
>
>>The cuke beetles ate all the silks off of our
>>3rd and 4th plantings making the cobs very
>>unevenly filled, much worse than having
>>earworms (which we also have).
>
>
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