Cucumber beetles. Sevin should control them, and the plants will outgrow the damage if you keep them off. However, a bigger danger than the feeding damage is that these insects carry viruses that cause mosaic and wilt, and they frequently inoculate the plants with the diseases. You should be able to tell if the plants are diseased in time to replant if necessary.....

Cucumber beetles [first wave] often first show up when cucurbit seedlings are very small. [Always be on watch for this]. These can be deadly in a day or two to the small seedlings. Sevin will protect them until it rains very much. Whether your plants are saveable is a guess. Some probanly will survive if not earen up too badly.

The beetles will feed and then lay eggs in the soil around the seedlings. The larva will eat on roots. A second generation of beetles may not show up for a while.

I said that the diseases are viruses, and that was a slip on my part. They are bacterial diseases that the beetles carry....

Forgive my new-guyness, but what is moasic and how can I tell if I have it? I've got some wilt right now, but I'm guessing these beetles turned their leaves into swiss cheese. It's not too bad, at least not yet.

Cucumber mosaidc IS a virus, and is transmitted by the cucumber beetle. Bacterial wilt is a bacterium, and is also transmitted by the beetle. sorry for any confusion. Mosaic will stunt the plant, cause it to lose leaves, and produce poorly. It may or may not kill the plant, but the plant will be permanently damaged. Bacterial wilt will kill the plant. Here's a picture of mosaic on a cucumber leaf....

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:45087}}