Hello garden gals and guys!
Have you ever grown green beans and everything was going great and then one day you go out into your garden and they look like this:
Picture courtesy of N’Ckyola Green, Gardener |
This is exactly what happened to one of my gardening buddies, N’Ckyola, and she had no idea what was going on.
But I did.
You may have heard me mention a few times that I completed the Maryland New Farmer Trainee program. I spent an entire year working on an organic farm. One of the many veggies they grew were beans. And some of their beans looked like the picture above.
I asked my farming mentor what caused it and he told me.
Mexican Bean Beetles.
What?
Then he searched around in the bean plants and found one and it looked like this:
I said “wait…that looks like a ladybug.”
Friends, that ain’t no ladybug.
What is a Mexican Bean Beetle?
Mexican bean beetles are the most common problem gardeners encounter when growing beans. Adults and larvae feed on the leaves and pods of all kinds of beans.
The adults overwinter in woods and weeds, making it hard to get rid of them once they get established. The females lay clusters of yellow eggs (more about that in a minute) on the undersides of leaves.
What Bean Beetle Damage Looks Like
How to Treat Mexican Bean Beetle Damage
- Put your garden gloves on and squish any eggs you find. I know. Yuck. But finding the eggs and destroying them will keep these pests from getting out of control.
- Handpick the larval and adult stage beetles and drop them into a bucket of warm, soapy water (or squish them, too, if you’re not squeamish). Remember, mated females can lay 40-75 eggs at a time. And these pests also overwinter. So handpicking is an important part of controlling the problem.
- Plant lots of flowers with your beans to attract beneficial insects that are natural predators to the bean beetle. Also try planting beans in between rows of potatoes.
- Install a floating row cover and open it regularly to check for beetles and remove any you find.
- Clean your garden at the end of the growing season. Getting rid of infected plants reduces the chances of insects overwintering in your garden.
Thank you, thank you THANK YOU for this Audra! You know I hate bugs… Ick. I have since replanted & have planted some marigolds around the new crop. I plan to keep an eye on them everyday like you said, so here's hoping for more green bean harvest soon!
I'm glad that I could help, Nikki! I hate bugs, too! 🙂 Definitely check your new plants daily. You may still get some damage, but if you do frequent bean patrols, it should keep the damage to a minimum.
Thanks for the tips for growing beans. We generally plant both bush and pole varieties. We use our fence for growing the pole variety.
https://www.roysfarm.com/growing-beans/
Hi, Monika:
You are most welcome! Thank you for stopping by. I hope you'll visit again.