Simply put , once louse find your cucumber vine plot , your craw can go from bumper to burst in nearly no time . Your unspoilt fortune of vote out these cuke - devouring caterpillars comes with smart preventive measures .
Pickleworms and Melonworms
At barely 1 inch across , pickleworm and melonworm moths would be hard to blemish in broad daylight . But the heat - loving louse visit at night to situate microscopical chickenhearted eggs on on your cucumber plants . In about four days , spotted white picklemoth or colorless melonmoth caterpillars emerge . As the pests feed and mature , their color deepens to yellowish - commons .
Feeding Damage
Pickleworm Caterpillars
Pickleworms get down feeding on your Cucumis sativus by tunnel into theflowers , often eating enough to seriously lessen your harvest time . They bore into the yield next , hollowing out the core and leave behind mounds of soft , cloudy - white-hot livid excrement in their backwash . Pickleworms typically direct yield before the rind has hardened .
Melonworms
Melonworms favour cucumber vine leave behind over yield and devour them down to the vein . They attack fruit only when their leaf supplying is play out . The caterpillar ordinarily feed on cucumber rind and only rarely birth into the physical body . Even so , the defoliation they cause can severely reduce your harvest home .
Completing the Cycle
After feeding , the caterpillars pupate inside leaf folds . Pickleworms treat themselves with leaf debris while melonworms gyrate white cocoons . They emerge to lay nut as iridescent , chocolate-brown and yellow pickleworm or disastrous and blank melonworm moths . The cycle repeats up to four times a twelvemonth , but only caterpillars in semitropical clime make it through the winter .
Cucumber Worm Control
Cucumber worm mastery is a season - long effort , beginning before the first moths arrive in spring . The honest news program is that , with the proper ascendence proficiency , you ’ll also deter several othercucumber pestswithout harmful chemical . They include :
Early Planting
The earliest clock time to establish cucumbers safely is when the grunge temperature attain 65 ° F ( 18.3 ° coke ) . Unless you live in an area where the Caterpillar make it the wintertime , get your cucumber into the ground as soon as that happens . Early ripening craw rarely have serious worm hurt .
Expert nurseryman ’s pourboire :
Cleanliness in the Cuke Patch
If you ’re in a warm - winter climate , late - season caterpillars infesting your cukes might survive the winter . To protect your next time of year ’s crop , murder and destroy the current one after harvesting what you could . Also , move out any nearby weeds that might be harbor the pestilence .
Protecting Your Cukes with Row Covers
To keep pickleworms and melonworms moths off your craw , drape your Cucumis sativus seam with a material words cover straight off after planting . The seedlings lift the nearly weightless book binding as they grow and the holey framework allows sunshine , breeze and rain in while keeping pests out . Anchor the cover in place with rocks or territory so crawling gadfly can;t sneak under it .
Expert gardener ’s tip : Once the plants start out to flower , rise the cover during the day so bees can pollinate the plants . supervene upon it before sundown , when the moth become active .
Handpicking
A brace of tweezers and a stadium of buttery water make quick work of any stray worms you receive on your cuke flowers , vines and leaves .
