{"id":17257,"date":"2021-06-23T13:49:53","date_gmt":"2021-06-23T17:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/?p=17257"},"modified":"2021-06-23T13:49:53","modified_gmt":"2021-06-23T17:49:53","slug":"eating-cucumber-seedlings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/06\/23\/eating-cucumber-seedlings\/","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s eating my cucumber seedlings?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Question:<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/06\/holes-in-cuke-leaves.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-17258\" src=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/06\/holes-in-cuke-leaves-300x300.jpeg\" alt=\"holes in cucumber leaves\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/06\/holes-in-cuke-leaves-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/06\/holes-in-cuke-leaves-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/06\/holes-in-cuke-leaves-768x768.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/06\/holes-in-cuke-leaves-105x105.jpeg 105w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/06\/holes-in-cuke-leaves-317x317.jpeg 317w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/06\/holes-in-cuke-leaves-423x423.jpeg 423w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/06\/holes-in-cuke-leaves-634x634.jpeg 634w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/06\/holes-in-cuke-leaves-846x846.jpeg 846w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/06\/holes-in-cuke-leaves-951x951.jpeg 951w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/06\/holes-in-cuke-leaves-32x32.jpeg 32w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/06\/holes-in-cuke-leaves.jpeg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 85vw, (max-width: 768px) 67vw, (max-width: 1024px) 62vw,300px\" \/><\/a>I just planted some organic cucumber seedlings in my garden, and immediately noticed holes in the leaves. I inspected the plant, and can not see any bugs. I submitted a photo. Can you tell me what it is? What I can or can not do about it? What can I do to prevent it from happening in the future?<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>Answer:<\/h3>\n<p><em>Kate Garland, Horticultural Professional<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s tough to say for sure without seeing the culprit, but it certainly looks a lot like cucumber beetle damage. It could also be flea beetles. For either one, I highly recommend using row cover over young plants as soon as they are transplanted or as soon as the seeds are sown. Cucumber beetles and flea beetles can find crops shockingly fast, so it&#8217;s best to be prepared with a physical barrier over them as soon as possible. Prevention is key; once you have those pests they can be tough to manage. For crops that require pollination (cucumbers, pumpkin, squash), remove row cover as soon as you see both male and female flowers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>More info on both insects can be found here:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/extension.umn.edu\/yard-and-garden-insects\/cucumber-beetles\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cucumber beetles in home gardens<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/extension.umn.edu\/yard-and-garden-insects\/flea-beetles\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Flea beetles in home gardens<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you have another space to replant cucumber seeds and try out your new row cover trick, there&#8217;s still plenty of time to get a crop. You could try pulling these seedlings and replanting in this area, but you may have enough of a pest population in the immediate area that they could get trapped under the row cover and still enjoy your next crop<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: I just planted some organic cucumber seedlings in my garden, and immediately noticed holes in the leaves. I inspected the plant, and can not see any bugs. I submitted a photo. Can you tell me what it is? What I can or can not do about it? What can I do to prevent it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[199,204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask","category-pests"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What&#039;s eating my cucumber seedlings? - Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard - University of Maine Cooperative Extension<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/06\/23\/eating-cucumber-seedlings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What&#039;s eating my cucumber seedlings? - Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard - University of Maine Cooperative Extension\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Question: I just planted some organic cucumber seedlings in my garden, and immediately noticed holes in the leaves. 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