dont confuze bean beetles with cucumber beetles, they're different buggers bean beetle http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dbean%2Bbeetle%26fr%3Dyfp-t-501%26toggle%3D1%26cop%3Dmss%26ei%3DUTF-8&w=335&h=500&imgurl=static.flickr.com%2F2287%2F1632300876_8ddced300e.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fnaturespixel%2F1632300876%2F&size=80.6kB&name=Bean%20Beetle&p=bean%20beetle&type=JPG&oid=8d7581b417cb279a&fusr=NaturesPixel%20Photography&tit=Bean%20Beetle&hurl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/naturespixel/&no=3&tt=757 cucumber beetle http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dcucumber%2B%2Bbeetle%26y%3DSearch%26fr%3Dyfp-t-501%26ei%3Dutf-8%26js%3D1%26x%3Dwrt&w=333&h=500&imgurl=static.flickr.com%2F3231%2F2308061704_8a1ede2da5.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fseismic_2000%2F2308061704%2F&size=85.5kB&name=Spotted%20Cucumber%20Beetle%20on%20rose%20petal&p=cucumber%20%20beetle&type=JPG&oid=3f00fb8192afbb46&fusr=Seismic_2000&tit=Spotted%20Cucumber%20Beetle%20on%20rose%20petal&hurl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/seismic_2000/&no=3&tt=590 bean beetles will decimate your beans. as for the CPB, hand pick until you can't keep up, spray, then go back to hand picking until you can't keep up, spray etc.

Hi George. Most years the cucumber beetle is my arch nemesis. Oddly this year there are none here in SE Wisconsin that I have seen. Your 10-15 per day is pretty low in my experience. In bad years I can go shake a plant and a cloud of them takes flight. You can try County Fair cucumber which is the only cuke available that has good resistance to bacterial wilt from the beetles. It's the only cuke I grow and it tastes good as a pickler as well as a slicer. Yes, they do hang around in the flowers of some plants. I don't know if they are damaging/eating it or if they are eating pollen or what. I dislike it because ain't no way I am going to poison the flowers. Flying pollinators seem really adept at just flying into the flower and avoiding foliage so on some of my non edible plants I have sprayed them to try to keep the numbers down, but I won't spray flowers with anything. Also, no, not every flower will be pollinated and produce a fruit. It's normal for many flowers to die and fall off. Yes, they do sometimes go after fruit. They like to take bites out of my green beans. I don't think I have seen them eat cuke skin, but I have seen them chew on pumpkin. Good luck, they are incredibly difficult to control without pesticides. Be grateful the number you are dealing with is on the low side. I know I am extremely grateful that for the first time in memory there are none in my garden this year (knock on wood).

The biggest damage that CBs do to cukes is to vector various diseases like bacterial wilt. Some cukes seem to be more resistent to disease problems -- over the years, I've tended to plant those over other varieties just to give myself a bit of an edge. The vines will give out eventually, but by then I'm tired of cukes anyway. Oh, wait, the question was about CBs. I just try to keep the CBs to a dull roar. If hand picking is keeping the numbers down, then it's essentially succeeding in my book. Keep monitoring you plants and squishing away. You'll see whether you're keeping the numbers down or not. If not, then I'd shrug and call it a day, but others might seek a more potent pesticide. No need to cross that bridge until you get a better idea whether you're keeping the numbers down or not.

i planted nothing but "straight eight" from seed this year as well, and it has been taking forever to fruit also. we picked our first cucumbers of the season approx. 10 days ago, with two more following about 5 days prior. right now, there are four more i've seen forming, one should be ready today with another one ready in 3-4 days, but out of the hundreds of blossoms on it, i'm really surprised, seems like we should be picking at least a dozen per week, not 2-3 as we have been. i've seen bumblebees going to work on them steadily, along with our green beans, so ... i'm not sure what is going on. this is very different from the cucumbers we'd planted from seed last year, which were putting out a dozen cukes per week, easy. i don't remember what kind that was...but the downside was, they just weren't sweet and crispy enough for us, even when picked very mature and cut immediately after picking. the straight-eights we've pulled so far have been delicious and extremely crispy...so i haven't really been sweating the slow production.