Bean Leaf Beetle
A quarter-inch beetle in red, tan or yellow, always with a small black triangle right behind its head. It chews neat round holes in bean leaves and, later in the season, scrapes and clips the pods.
Pest checklist
Four things to look for. If most of them match what you are holding, you are in the right place.
What gets rid of them
Gentlest option first. For most backyard cases the first one is enough, so try these in order and stop as soon as it works. If you do spray something, the product label tells you how — please read the notice further down.
1Tolerate the leaf holes
A healthy bean plant carries a lot of chewed leaf without losing yield. Only step in if seedlings are being destroyed or pods are being scarred.
Try this first2Cover seedlings
Row cover over the row for the first few weeks keeps the overwintered beetles off the young plants when they are most vulnerable.
floating row cover garden fabric3Delay planting slightly
The first wave comes out of overwintering in mid-May; a bean row sown a couple of weeks later misses the heaviest seedling feeding.
4Spray only for pod damage
If pods are being clipped or scraped as they fill, a garden insecticide labeled for beans on the pods will stop it; check the days-to-harvest interval on the label.
pyrethrin garden insect spray
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Which plants get bean leaf beetle
Every plant we cover that gets bean leaf beetle, grouped by type — tap any one to open its page. A note beside a plant came from that plant’s own entry, because the same pest can be a minor nuisance on one plant and a serious problem on another. Plenty of plants we do not cover get it too.
Plant families hit hardest
Related plants often share the same problems, so if one plant in a family has it, check the others. The largest group here is Fabaceae, with 6 of the 6 affected plants.
- Fabaceae6 plants
When to treat
Leaf holes on established plants are usually cosmetic and need nothing; act when seedlings are being stripped in late May and early June, or when the beetles start working on the pods.
Timing only — the label is the law
This page tells you when to watch for bean leaf beetle and when treating is worth considering. It is not a recommendation to apply any particular product. Read and follow the product label before you spray — under federal law the label is the legal instruction, and using a pesticide against it is illegal.
- Check the pre-harvest interval. Every product that’s cleared for an edible crop sets a minimum number of days between spraying and picking. Find it on the label before you spray anything you intend to eat.
- Check the re-entry interval before you or anyone else works in the treated area again, and use the protective equipment the label names.
- Confirm the product is registered for your crop in your state. This page groups many different crops together, and a product legal on one of them is not legal on all of them — state registrations differ too. Your state pesticide agency or local extension office can confirm both.
- Rates and mixing instructions come from the label, never from us. We don’t publish them because they differ by product and formulation.
Other problems on the same plants
If a plant gets bean leaf beetle, these are the problems it most often gets as well, so they are worth checking for while you are out there. They tend to appear together; one does not cause another.