Biological Control for Cucumber Beetles & Bacterial Wilt

RayR · May 2, 2015

Cucumber beetles were the plague of my cucumbers and squash for years and it only takes a few beetles infected with bacterial wilt to kill your crop within a week.
I said "were" because for the last few seasons I've had no problems with cucumber beetles or bacterial wilt. Of course I was very happy with that but it puzzled me as to where they went. Instead of the swarms of them that I would find resting in the flowers in early morning, I could only find one or two occasionally. And there was almost no feeding damage to the leaves.
Then a couple months ago I saw this video of Clemson's Dr. Geoff Zehnder talking about the discovery he and his colleagues accidently found decades ago after experimenting with PGPR's (Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria). Then it struck me that the disappearance of my cucumber beetle and bacterial wilt problem coincided exactly with when I started seriously inoculating my seedlings with mycorrhizal fungi and beneficial bacteria!

Here's the video

Here are some links to the what has been published:

Induction of systemic resistance in cucumber against cucumber beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) by plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria

Insect feeding on cucumber mediated by rhizobacteria-induced plant
resistance

Application of rhizobacteria for induced resistance

Microbe-Induced Resistance Against Pathogens and
Herbivores: Evidence of Effectiveness in Agriculture

May 2, 2015	#1
RayR Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Cheektowaga, NY Posts: 2,466	Biological Control for Cucumber Beetles & Bacterial Wilt Cucumber beetles were the plague of my cucumbers and squash for years and it only takes a few beetles infected with bacterial wilt to kill your crop within a week. I said "were" because for the last few seasons I've had no problems with cucumber beetles or bacterial wilt. Of course I was very happy with that but it puzzled me as to where they went. Instead of the swarms of them that I would find resting in the flowers in early morning, I could only find one or two occasionally. And there was almost no feeding damage to the leaves. Then a couple months ago I saw this video of Clemson's Dr. Geoff Zehnder talking about the discovery he and his colleagues accidently found decades ago after experimenting with PGPR's (Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria). Then it struck me that the disappearance of my cucumber beetle and bacterial wilt problem coincided exactly with when I started seriously inoculating my seedlings with mycorrhizal fungi and beneficial bacteria! Here's the video Here are some links to the what has been published: Induction of systemic resistance in cucumber against cucumber beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) by plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria Insect feeding on cucumber mediated by rhizobacteria-induced plant resistance Application of rhizobacteria for induced resistance Microbe-Induced Resistance Against Pathogens and Herbivores: Evidence of Effectiveness in Agriculture