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If cucumbers turn brown and die, you may have
a disease known as bacterial
wilt. This disease is carried by the spotted
cucumber beetle or the stripped
cucumber beetle. Once a plant is infected, there is no cure, so prevention
is the key. The bacteria Bacillus tracheiphilus Erw. Sm., survives the
winter in the gut of the overwintering beetles. In the spring the beetles
inoculate the disease into the plant tissues as they feed, spreading disease
from plant to plant and field to field wherever infected beetles feed.
The insect is also a vector of cucumber mosaic disease.
There are two types of cucumber beetles; striped
and spotted. The striped cucumber beetle is the most common. The 1/4-inch-long
beetles are conspicuously colored – black head and antennae, straw-yellow
thorax, and yellowish wing covers with three distinct parallel and longitudinal
black stripes. |
