How To Get Rid of Cucumber Beetles With Plants
June 23rd, 2010 Posted in Beetles & Ladybugs, Ornamental & Lawn PestsThe words “diet” and “cutting down on calories” are not in the vocabulary of the glutenous cucumber beetle.
This overindulgent critter will destroy your cucumber and melon seedlings, damage flowers, feed on roots and ignite bacterial wilt and disease!
Convincing a cucumber beetle to stop ruining your crops is just out of the question; but you can plant certain things in your garden to ward them away— come on Mr. Cucumber Beetle, “low carb” is so in.
How to Get Rid of Cucumber Beetles with Plants
If you’re searching for how to get rid of cucumber beetles in a natural way, look no further than your local nursery.
Did you know a lot of plants naturally repel cucumber beetles?
To keep your melons and cucumbers safe from these hungry fiends, try harvesting these herbs and plants in your garden.
Oregano
You might recognize this perennial herb from its uses in tomato sauces, fried vegetables and grilled meat.
However oregano is also a great cucumber beetle repellent plant.
To plant:
- Pick a spot that receives a lot of sun
- Use a well-draining soil, on the lean side
Oregano typically grows from 20-80 centimeters tall.
Radish
This yummy vegetable can also ward off hungry cucumber beetles.
To plant:
- Find a spot that gets a lot of sun
- Use moist and fertile soil that is prepared well
- Add fertilizer
- Sow seed 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep
- Maintain moisture by watering regularly
After you’re done fending off cucumber beetles, you can harvest your radish for a delicious snack.
Tansy
Planting tansy in your garden will help keep cucumber beetles away.
You can choose any soil to harvest tansy in, because this plant will not only survive, but thrive in mostly all soils (even poor ones).
A tansy does the best in sun, but it will also do well in partial shade.
For best results, add general-use fertilizer when planting.
Caution: If eaten in bulk, tansy can be toxic, so don’t plant a lot of this stuff near livestock.
Catnip
Even though your beloved Fluffy loves catnip, cucumber beetles do not!
To plant:
- Catnip loves sun, so pick a spot that receives 6-8 hours
- Your spot should also obtain adequate moisture
- Use a well-draining soil
- Water frequently to start
Marigolds
Blooming with bright yellow, orange to red flowers, you may know this plant to emit smells that some insects can’t stand.
To repel cucumber beetles use pungent varieties like African, French or Mexican.
Marigolds need a lot of sunlight, and rich, well-draining soil to grow.
Caution: Common marigolds may attract cucumber beetles; however, you could these varieties as a trap crop.
How To Get Rid of Cucumber Beetles Without Plants
If your repellent plants aren’t working as well as you’d like, alternative actions could be taken to rid your garden of cucumber beetles.
…However don’t let alternative mean the use of synthetic chemically-based insecticides, because there is a natural option.
EcoSMART pesticides are made with all-natural plant oils that repel and kill insects the way nature intended.
With the use of things like cinnamon and thyme oils, these products work to kill pests on-contact, while maintaining an atmosphere that’s safe for human and pets.
After you’re done spraying, you’ll notice that EcoSMART is the perfect diet for cucumber beetles. Who wants seconds?
3 Comments | The First 1,000 to Comment (Starting 12/21/2009) Will Become EcoSMART Product Testers!
By Laura on Jul 3, 2011
I picked up a bottle of the EcoSMART yesterday at Walmart. I was just going to get a sprayer for soapy water, and found the garden insect killer. I have grasshoppers eating the leaves on my pepper plants, something has laid eggs on the leaves of my potato plants, and I’ve found cucumber beetles (both spotted and striped varieties) on my cucumbers, tomatoes, and melons. Everything (except the pepper plants) is looking SO good and growing well. So I’m hoping that the natural insect killer will help me wage war on the insects. Now if only they EcoSMART made something to repel the raccoons from my bird feeders and flower beds…
By Leslie on Jul 20, 2011
We have given up, sort of, trying physical means of control of these varmints and will plant as suggested above IF we can those plants to grow in our hot Texas sun, in the middle of a drought! Otherwise, we’re off to the store to pick up your product to let it do its’ work. Will it kill the ladybugs and their larvae too?
By Lisa Harshman on Jul 20, 2011
I came home from a weekend at the lake to find my garden over run by cucumber beetles. Since I am trying to keep my garden organic I started trying to kill them via organic means but nothing seemed to work. I went to my local Home Depot and found your EcoSmart Garden Insect Killer on the shelf amongst all the toxic pesticides. I bought it and brought it home and that evening when it cooled off enough to work outside I sprayed it on the cucumber beetles. To my surprise and relief they started dropping like flies. What really amazed me was the great smell of the spray. It took the whole bottle to cover my garden and I still have some beetles flying around so I guess I need to go back for more.