An organic solution to cucumber beetles

16 years ago

I have posted this information on the Vegetable forum since many of those posters don't visit here and may want to try this. Some of you may know I've been working on an organic solution to these destructive insects for three years now. This may be the best and easiest solution yet. I recall last year driving everybody crazy here trying to find some sort of surfactant that would allow a spray of cucurbit "juice" and red dye #28 to stick to plants but not suffocate them, but this avoids that problem altogether.

Today I saw the first cucumber beetle on my Caserta squash, which I've planted as a trap crop for the buggers!

I was able to harvest nine 6-7" small squash, three of which were badly pollinated. Those are the ones I'm using as the lure for cuke beetles.

My dispatcher of the cuke beetles is Red Dye #28 this year. So here are the easy steps:

Red Dye #28 ordered from the internet, which is widely used and approved for human consumption and cosmetics. It is phototoxic to cucumber beetles which are attracted to the lure. See the link further down the post. I had to order two of the dye packet to reach the required minimum order, so it will be enough to last for years!

A food storage container and water for mixing the dye.

The Caserta squash I'll use to lure the beetles.

The dye and water mixed. I used a quarter teaspoon of the dye, which is dry, and a quarter cup of water. I think half that amount of the dye will be quite sufficient, but we'll see how this does.

Casertas sliced into boats and placed cut surface down in the dye solution.

One minute later, the cherry red colored zucchini boats are ready.

I put the lid on the remaining dye solution and refrigerated it for the next batch of zucchini boats. I put the dyed zucchini into a pie tin and slid them under the Caserta squash leaves to protect them from the sun and maybe rain. When they've outlived their usefulness, I'll just toss them in the garden and put out more.

Now, to wait and see if this solution kills the cucumber beetles that I have no doubt are on the way.

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Comments (9)

borderbarb
16 years ago
By all means, keep us posted on this. Do you know if the same effect can be achieved by using red paper or cloth along with the squash? [smell & color] Or is the red dye toxic to the beetles?
anney
Original Author
16 years ago
It is the red dye #28 which is the beetle-killer, not because of the color but because of its photoreactive characteristics. When consumed by cuke beetles, they are dead in five to ten minutes after they go into the sunlight. The beetles must be induced to ingest it, usually by offering something that they are irresistibly attracted to and mixing the dye with it. This link describes the principles. I am using Caserta squash as the lure since it ranks very high in attractiveness to cucumber beetles.

Red dye #28 has been determined to be safe for human consumption for many decades. The dye is called a "light-activated insecticide", meaning that the insect must first ingest it and then be exposed to sunlight through the insect's transparent gut. The light excites oxygen molecules inside the insect, which is believed to cause a chemical reaction that kills the insect. It also works to kill Mediterranean fruit flies using the same "lure-dye" lethal cocktail, of course with a different lure. This was discovered in 1928, though until recently, nobody was interested when there were so many insecticides consumers could buy for pennies that would kill every insect around.

My next project will be to see if it works on Mexican bean beetles, though I don't know if they have a transparent gut.

[If not, mixing Sevin with the lure concoction will also dispatch the pests without contaminating your garden area if you keep it off the soil. This was the first insecticide I used against cuke beetles, along with tayuya root powder as the lure. Later I used clove oil as the lure, which attracts only female cucumber beetles. But so many people feared the Sevin would end up spilled onto their soil, I kept trying to find something that wasn't so scary to organic people, even though the Sevin never went into the garden.]

The only host the MBB seems to prefer above all others is wax beans, so I'm thinking that maybe some kind of "wax bean soup" could be whipped up with the dye as part of the soup if it's a beetle with a transparent gut. I need to find an entymologist to ask!

Several issues must be kept in mind. First, to identify a lure that is attractive ONLY to the pest, not beneficial insects. And second, no other plants in your garden must be more attractive to the insect than the plant you're using for a lure. And then the lure and dye mixture or insecticide must be ingested by the pest in the form it's offered.
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Kimmsr
16 years ago
Red Dye #28 is approved for use in cosmetics but not in foods, because of concerns it may be a carcinogen. Since the use of Sevin, or any other Carbaryl product, is anathema to real organic gardeners/farmers even suggesting the use in any way begs questions about whether the writer is an organic gardener.
anney
Original Author
16 years ago
kimmsr

Just stop it. I'll use Sevin if I must and still BE an organic gardener if none of it gets into the garden. You beat everything, you know that? And I WILL challenge your fanaticism and lack of rationality.
Kimmsr
16 years ago
You can use Sevin, or any other product you wish. But using products unacceptable to organic gardening practices means you are not an organic gardener.
Just as the USDA certification process to be a "Certified Organic" producer has been so watered down as to be meaningless and is meant now to allow people such as ConAgra to optain "certification".
SerenitysHaven
14 years ago
This solution has been very useful information.I see no follow up from you Anney on this experiment.I have found hardly nothing in the stores with this dye in it except Pepto Mismal(to me it sounded silly to use it..but im pretty sure it did work to those who ate it)...so i mixed that with clove(crushed) and it did attract them..i have less beetles now...but just received my red dye #28 and am going to attempt this experiment next.Now I will know the test results for sure.
And I do live across the road from a corn field,where cucumber beetles love to thrive!
cbfindlay
13 years ago
Anybody have any reports on whether this works?
juliagoolia74
12 years ago
Can you give me the site(s) you ordered the red dye from? I can't seem to find it online
little_minnie
12 years ago
No one tells you what you can or can't use, but when you use certain things, even purchasing them, makes you non-organic!
The organic solution to cucumber beetles is a shop vac!!! That way you can get the bugs you want without killing beneficials.