I have a very ugly yellow spiny bug eating my bean leaves. They are all over the leaves and are completely eating them down to the veins. Yuck.
A fellow gardener recommended a homemade spray that she has used successfully: Mix 12 garlic cloves, 12 very hot chili peppers (habenero would be best), 2 Tbs Murphy’s Oil soap, 2 Tbs salad oil and food process til pureed. Filter through cheese cloth. Dilute with 1 gallon of water and spray on the plants.
I am not sure I have the energy to mix this up myself. I think I will head over to the garden store tomorrow and see what they have for organic sprays.
8 Comments. Leave new
What about a squirt of Dr. Bronners with water in a spray bottle? That's what we use. 🙂
Kathy- my dad sprinkles lime on the leaves- he has very few holes in his leaves when he does that.
Be careful, they can decimate your plants very quickly. Within days actually. I noticed them on a Sunday, by Thursday the leaves were skeletonized. Had to pull the plants. 🙁
Started a new batch though and so far so good!
if they look like this picture, they are mexican bean beetle larvae. nasty. best way to avoid them is to be vigilant about hand-picking the adults early on in the season. cold comfort now, i know. good luck. let us know what the garden center recommends, and how it works out.
whoops, sorry, forgot to post the link to the picture. here it is.
I get them every year. Not only on the beans, but the squash and cucumbers as well. Best thing I found is to squish every adult and larvae I see. It's unpleasant but effective. If you start early in the season, they can be "manageable". I let them get established the first year (as I didn't know what they were) and they devastated my garden.
Next year, plant some borage. It's a deterrent to the bean beetle. We haven't seen any since we started doing this three years ago.
REALLY! I have a GIANT borage plant in the middle of my beans. It seems to me the bean beetles were on it too. I almost sprayed it with Captain Jack, but there are so many bees on it that I didn't.
I thought the borage was maybe attracting the beetles. It doesn;t appear that the borage is being eaten, but the beans at the end of the row closest to the borage are most heavily eaten. I will have to post a photo.
I don't remember if I wrote already that the spray I used worked well. After 2 days, there are only a few left. I was able to get up my courage and squish these. Today i went and checked and I don't see any bugs and the new leaves seem good.
I'm sure more will come, and I will make sure to keep up with squishing them, as unpleasant as that is.