Diseases

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Working around cucumber beetles

Remember those pesky little cucumber beetles I talked about a few times last year? Shown in the picture above (taken last year), they cause double damage by creating scar marks on crops in the cucurbit family like squash and cucumber and transmitting a disease called bacterial wilt that can kill the entire plant. They tend to get to work early, making their first appearance in the late spring even though they prey on heat-loving summer crops, which means that they can definitely do some damage to young cucumber and squash plants when they first get planted outside. As we near the first frost dates around our region and it gets to...

Bacterial wilt

Earlier this year, I talked a bit about cucumber beetles. You’ll find these little black-and-yellow striped or spotted bugs on plants in the cucurbit family like cucumbers and squash. While damage from the beetles to the leaves and fruit of these plants is in itself not that problematic, as the summer progresses these insects’ bites can transmit a season-ending disease for some cucurbits. If you’re a gardener, bacterial wilt is likely something you have seen before or may even be experiencing in your garden right now. This disease is transmitted from plant to plant when cucumber beetles bite and the bacteria can even overwinter in the beetles’ guts. Besides cucumber plants, bacterial wilt also...

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