Cucumber Beetle Infestation

Hi everyone. There are emails circling around about how we should deal with the cucumber beetle infestation. Jen Cook offered some great tips which reminded me of the garden guide. Here are some organic solutions for dealing with pests:

• Soap spray: Soapy water can be used to spray on plants to kill some pests. It can also keep eggs from hatching. Just mix a little dishwashing soap with water. Make sure to spray both the tops and bottoms of the leaves.
• Garlic Spray: Puree 15 cloves of garlic with 2 cups of water in a blender. Or, mash the garlic or cut it up finely. Let it sit for one day. Then strain the liquid, so there are no garlic pieces left. The garlic repels some bad bugs, and can kill young ones.
• Hot Pepper Spray: Add 1/2 cup of finely chopped hot peppers to 2 cups of water. Or, put in a blender. Strain the mixture. Wear gloves. If the spray gets on your skin or in your eyes it will burn or sting. Large pests like ground hogs, raccoons and mice, don’t like hot peppers. If this is sprayed around the garden, it will help to keep them away.
• Hair: Scattering human hair clippings or dog hair around a garden area may help keep ground hogs away.
• Twigs and Branches: Scatter twigs and branches over your planted rows to keep cats away. Make sure not to scatter too many twigs and branches before your plants germinate as the seeds that you have planted need sunlight to grow.
• Rebecca's organic farmer friend Allaine suggests going around with a bucket of water and tapping them into it. Apparently they scoot to the underside of the leaf when you approach, so if you tap on the leaf they fall in fairly easily
• Aamina offers some advice as well: I've had those in my garden for years and found that squishing them between my gloved fingers till they pop every morning, early in the morning by the dozens seems to keep them somewhat under control. And I spray the leaves with this mixture: in the blender throw in a few cloves of garlic, a hot pepper,and top it off with a couple of cups of boiling water. Very carefully, with the lid on, blend it up, steep it about an hour and finely strain it into a spray bottle, top up with about a tsp. of dishsoap and gently swirl it to mix it up but don't shake so it gets all bubbly.
  

You can download a full copy of the garden guide from Just Food. If all else fails, apparently a chicken will do the trick (thanks Mike!) :) If there are any other tips, please leave a comment and I'll put them up!

Crystal