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Farm Wages War On Invading Beetle

Story Published: Oct 12, 2012 at 3:51 PM EDT

Story Updated: Oct 12, 2012 at 6:09 PM EDT

It has been a good year at Cross Island Farms on Wellesley Island - except for certain crops. 

"They totally wiped out my cucumber crop and my melon crop. I had nothing to sell of those two," said farm co-owner Dani Baker.

Dani is talking about the cucumber beetle.

Wikipedia calls is "a sucking invader."

The insect, which surfaced on the organic farm in a big way last year, wiped out cucumbers and melons and damaged pumpkins and squash this year.

So if you're an organic farmer, how do you feel about a pesky insect that wants to take a bite out of your profits?

"When it's still cool, they're still in the flowers, so I take the flowers and...crush them," said Dani. "I curse a lot."

"Sometimes it's difficult not to take things personally," said farm co-owner David Belding.

Next year, they plan to unleash a holistic attack.

There will be no pesticides, but maybe poultry.

"We have ducks and turkeys that we will put in a portable fence in the areas where we had lots of cucumber beetle problems this time," said David.

Also, they plan a diversionary tactic - lure the beetle toward less valuable crops and hope for the best.

"We're hoping some natural predator will appear. Haven't seen one yet, but that's what we're hoping," said Dani.

With more than 200 varieties of vegetables, the farm isn't hurting too bad.

It's next year, the hurting will be on the cucumber beetle.
Saturday, May 25, 2013
, Watertown, NY

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