Organic Insecticide Control for Bean Leaf Beetles

Reader Contribution by Tonya Olson
Published on June 21, 2019
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Photo by Tonya Olson

When I was a kid, I hated picking beans. It was hot, humid, and eventually, I was sunburned from picking them. The work was intense, because my sister and I put off picking them until the bounty was heavy and the heat was high. Learn from my mistake: Don’t wait to harvest.

Beans also will stop producing if you don’t pick them. After all the picking was done, I had to trim the ends off. I heard it once said that green beans were a country kid’s worst nightmare. I know it was mine! I had eaten canned beans for most of my short life, and I didn’t really see the point to growing them.

Since then, I have become an adult and can now say homegrown garden beans are much tastier. Bush and pole beans are a couple of my contributions to our MOTHER EARTH NEWS garden. The inspiration for the pole beans came from my friend Benedict Vanheems, and as friend and former Mother Earth Living Editor Hannah Kincaid once said, try something new! The pole beans are my something new. We have yet to plant them in a circle, but because our garden grows in Zone 6a, we may very well be A-OK to do just that.

Because I have a vested interest in these beans, when I saw a ton of holes in them, the momma bear in me came out! I snapped pictures and marched back into the Ogden Publications office to ask our Editorial Director, Hank Will, for his advice. With Hank’s insight, we discovered the issue to be bean leaf beetles munching away to their hearts’ delight.

Identify the Treacherous Bean Leaf Beetle

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