Healthy garden plants yield healthy crops. When aphids and cucumber beetles move from infected plants to healthy plants to feed they bring with them diseases like the mosaic virus. Ridding the garden of these harmful disease-carrying insects is a first step toward a bountiful harvest.
Recognizing Aphids
Aphids are tiny with soft pear-shaped bodies and two long antennae at the tip of their head. They range in color from translucent green to pearly black, with pink, red, purple and blue varieties. Damaged leaves often turn yellow as the plant weakens.
Eliminating Aphids
If aphids are observed on plants a natural spray to kill them can be made from 1 cup of vegetable oil, 1 1/2 cups of water and 2 teaspoons of dish soap. Sprayed on the aphids, the insects suffocate and die. Two or three applications may be necessary over the course of a few days and the plants should be shaded from direct sunlight while they are still wet.
The best method for dealing with aphids and the diseases they carry is not to allow them into the vegetable garden in the first place. Planting onions and garlic near susceptible plants will drive away aphids as they don't like the smell. A lure can also be created by planting the flowers they prefer at a considerable distance from food plants. Too close and the aphids will simply move from flowers to vegetables. Some of the plants aphids love are nasturtium, asters, mums, cosmos, hollyhocks, larkspur, tuberous begonias, verbena, dahlias and zinnias.
Recognizing Cucumber Beetles
There are two varieties of cucumber beetle - striped and spotted. The striped beetle is bright yellow with three broad black stripes and a black head. The spotted beetle has eleven large black spots on its wing covers. Affected plants show holes chewed through foliage, flowers and fruits.
Eliminating Cucumber Beetles
Cucumber beetles don't restrict their diet to cucumbers but feed on many other plants as well. Floating row covers are good protection from the beetles from early to midseason, at which time the covers will need to be removed to admit pollinators. Plant vegetables cucumber beetles don't like along with those you want to protect. When planting cucumbers, pop in radish seeds around the plants. Grow broccoli near susceptible plants or spread onion skins on the surrounding soil.
Ladybugs dine happily on adult aphids and cucumber beetle larvae and may be purchased quite inexpensively. Plant a cover crop of hairy vetch to attract these helpful insects. Because of their symbiotic relationship with aphids, keep ants out of the garden. In return for milking aphids of their sugary 'honeydew', ants protect aphids from ladybugs and other predators.
Resource:
Storey's Basic Country Skills by John and Martha Storey, Storey Publishing, 1999
Linnea Heinrichs - After years of extensive research into the medieval period, Linnea's debut novel, The First Vial, was published in 2005 by Thistledown ...
