Biological information:

• Common name: Bacterial Wilt
• Scientific name: Erwinia tracheiphila
• Family or class: Enterobacteriaceae

Symptoms and/or signs to watch out for:

• Wilting of plants or vines
• Movement from leaf tips into petiole
• Bacterial ooze, streaming

Life cycle:

• Overwinters in plant debris and infected beetles
• Early feeding by striped cucumber beetle and spotted cucumber beetles pick up bacteria
• Symptoms appear 6-7 days following infection

Mode of reproduction:

• Essentially binary fission

Vectors for the pest:

• Striped cucumber beetle
• Spotted cucumber beetles

Overwintering habit:

• Crop debris
• Insect mouthparts

Alternate hosts:

• Other cucurbits
• Goldenrod?

Horticultural production information:

Preventative strategies:

• Management of beetle populations
• Culling infected plants from field
• Sanitation (tools, equipment, hands, fields)

Threshold levels:

• 1 beetle per plant – insecticidal action

Control options:

Physical controls:

• Netting

Biological controls:

• No effective option

Chemical controls:

• Camouflage – surround at planting
• Insecticides

Historical notes from Farm to YoU NH:

Date/circumstances observed (Pictures)

Control method used, efficacy of control method

References:

http://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/intropp/pathogengroups/pages/bacteria.aspx

http://www.extento.hawaii.edu/kbase/crop/type/e_trach.htm

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3121.html

http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/2906/2906-1303/2906-1303_pdf.pdf