Posts Tagged: spotted cucumber beetle
Spotted Cucumber Beetles: They Know How to Hit the Spot
Western spotted cucumber beetles know how to hit the spot. Make that "multiple...
Wide angle shot of a western spotted cucumber beetle, Diabrotica undecimpunctata, chewing a hole in a petal of a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of a western spotted cucumber beetle chewing a hole in a Mexican sunflower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The end result: a Mexican sunflower you wouldn't want to enter in a county fair. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of a western spotted cucumber beetle. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Let's Hear It for Biocontrol, Integrated Pest Management
Let's hear it for biocontrol. You've seen lady beetles, aka ladybugs, preying on aphids. But have...
An assassin bug drills a pest, a spotted cucumber beetle. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A lady beetle, aka ladybug, snares an aphid. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A crab spider munches on a stink bug. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A great blue heron engages in a little pest management: it catches a rodent, a meadow vole, at Bodega Bay. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The great blue heron gets its prey, a meadow vole, in position before swallowing it whole. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Pest Profiles: Spotted Cucumber Beetle
Last weekend I went out to my back porch to water and deadhead my container garden and came across some damage to my cosmos. The petals of most of the flowers had multiple small holes. I looked more carefully and noticed that the tomato plant next to the cosmos also had small holes in the leaves and in the fruit. Now I was curious! What was causing this damage to my plants? As I started turning over leaves and rotating tomato fruits, I spotted what looked like a yellow ladybug. A-ha! A potential pest! But who was this spotted critter?
As is indicated in the common name, Western spotted cucumber beetles and cucumber beetles in general are common on cucurbits, that is melons and cucumbers. But they also will feed on other tender succulent portions of garden plants, including the flowers and leaves. The life cycle includes several generations a year, with eggs laid at the base of plants or in soil cracks, larvae which burrow into the soil and eat plant roots, and adult beetles that attack the aboveground portions of plants. Adult beetles are shiny with black heads, long antennae, and yellowish bodies with black spots. There's also a related striped cucumber beetle that has stripes rather than spots, but does pretty similar damage in the garden.
For more information, check out the UCANR Integrated Pest Management information here and here. Don't forget to subscribe to our blog so that you receive an email notification when a new post goes up. If you have questions, contact us online, by phone or in person to get answers to your gardening quandaries!
Down on the Farm...
Down on the farm...the Loma Vista Farm.... When the Loma Vista Farm--part of the Vallejo City...
A farmer's hand and a very beneficial insect, the lady beetle, aka ladybug. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A beneficial insect, the lady beetle (far left), and a pest, the spotted cucumber beetle, share a leaf. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Western tiger swallowtail, Papilio rutulus, forages on a butterfly bush at the Loma Vista Farm, Vallejo. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A colony of yellow-faced bumble bees, Bombus vosnesenskii, works throughout the Loma Vista Farm's Spring Festival. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The caterpillar of an anise swallowtail, Papilio zelicaon, munches on fennel or anise, the host plant. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Case of Mistaken Identity
"Ah, look at that cute little yellow ladybug! Isn't it pretty?" How many times have you heard...
A spotted cucumber beetle foraging on Iceland poppy. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)