What's eating my young cucumber leaves and pumpkin leaves? (photos attached)

[Jason Ornoff]

Greetings, all.

New member here and this is my first post...

I've noticed lately that my pumpkin leaves (planted from seeds) have occasional nibbles and bites missing, some worse than others. Overall, the vines seem to be thriving (blooms, but no fruit yet; I'll tackle that on another post). More recently I bought a cucumber vine that was slightly more developed than seedling stage. It seems to be doing well for the most part. I was gone all last week and got home today to find that it's being munched on, but also seems to have some other necrotic-looking condition going on. I also found a small green caterpillar-like pest on the leaves.

Have a look at the pics... What do I have happening, and what can I do to abate it? (Leaves have been clipped off and trashed).

I'm wondering if maybe I have two different conditions going on here. Any and all help & advice is apprecated!


Cucumber leaf... the green invader is at about the middle of the photo.

Wider view of the same cucumber plant.

Pumpkin vines-

 

[Beth_B]

Welcome!

Cucumber beetles:
http://www.almanac.com/content/cucumber-beetles

 

[Chuck]

Greetings, all.

New member here and this is my first post...

I've noticed lately that my pumpkin leaves (planted from seeds) have occasional nibbles and bites missing, some worse than others. Overall, the vines seem to be thriving (blooms, but no fruit yet; I'll tackle that on another post). More recently I bought a cucumber vine that was slightly more developed than seedling stage. It seems to be doing well for the most part. I was gone all last week and got home today to find that it's being munched on, but also seems to have some other necrotic-looking condition going on. I also found a small green caterpillar-like pest on the leaves.

Have a look at the pics... What do I have happening, and what can I do to abate it? (Leaves have been clipped off and trashed).

I'm wondering if maybe I have two different conditions going on here. Any and all help & advice is apprecated!


Cucumber leaf... the green invader is at about the middle of the photo.
View attachment 7982


Wider view of the same cucumber plant.
View attachment 7983


Pumpkin vines-
View attachment 7984
View attachment 7985

What you have are called cabbage loopers. They are easily controlled by a Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) product. There are many brand names that have Bt as its active ingredient. It is a completely safe organic product and the best remedy for caterpillars that there is. You may also have as RuthB says cucumber beetles although none are shown. They are a small beetle that is either yellow with black spots or chartreuse green with black spots. You can rid yourself of them with spinosad, another organic pesticide.

 

[Jason Ornoff]

Thank you! I'm hitting the garden shop later today.

Any ideas for companion plants that will deter them?