How do you prevent overwintering?
Written by
Liu Xiaohui
Reviewed by
Prof. Martin Thorne, Ph.D.Preventing the overwintering of cucumber beetles breaks their lifecycle before spring occurs. I begin the cleanup of the garden immediately after harvest. These pests find refuge in fenced vegetation and soil cracks. Halt their winter survival. If you implement these methods, you can reduce the pest population by 70% or more next year.
Garden Sanitation
- Remove all debris: Clear vines, leaves and fallen fruits
- Destroy infected plants: Burn or bag wilt-diseased material
- Eliminate weeds: Especially wild cucurbits near garden borders
Soil Treatment
- Deep tilling: Expose beetles to freezing temperatures
- Solarization: Cover moist soil with clear plastic for 4-6 weeks
- Nematode application: Target larvae before they overwinter
Long-Term Strategies
- Crop rotation: Move cucurbits to new beds yearly
- Tool sanitation: Disinfect equipment with bleach solution
- Barrier crops: Plant non-host buffers around garden edges
Immediately after the harvest, prevention should begin. Throughout your garden, remove all plant material. The striped beetles hide out in cucumber vines and squash leaves. I also remove everything, including any dropped fruits. Tilling the soil deeply before the freeze-up is also beneficial. The tilling will expose the beetles to cold temperatures, which will cause them to die.
The process known as soil solarization is very effective in warm areas. To solarize the soil, cover wet or moist soil with a clear plastic material for four weeks. I secure the edges of the plastic with soil. The grounded plastic energizes from the sun, killing larvae and eggs in the soil. Solarization also works to kill any weed seeds and diseases. Therefore, prepare beds for spring planting as early as possible.
Rotate crops in each new growing season. Jacollia advises against planting cucurbits in the same bed in consecutive seasons. I try to move them at least 100 feet, which disrupts the beetle's individual lifecycles. Instead, I try to plant non-host crops such as tomatoes or corn. This rotation process confuses the emerging beetles in the spring.
It is essential to sanitize your tools and equipment between seasons thoroughly. I soak my shovels and trellises in a bleach solution; this way, I know it will prevent transmission of something like bacterial wilt. I would recommend cleaning as you are storing stakes and cages. Keep up sanitation in the garden throughout the year. All these steps assure that beetles won't have a place to put down roots the following season.
Read the full article: Cucumber Beetle Damage: Signs and Solutions
