anney - if it works, don't knock it. I am using something this year that I found discussed one time online, but for the life of me I can't find the source anymore. Anyway, I have bright yellow (attractive to beetles) plastic cups with a knotted piece of twine running through a hole in the bottom of the cup which secures a small piece of felt (also bright yellow) to the inside bottom of the cup, such that the cup can be hung UPSIDE DOWN and rainwater is not an issue. The felt is scented with a drop of the clove oil you mention, and the insides of the cup are coated with tanglefoot adhesive. The beetles get attracted to the colors and the scent, and invariably get stuck to the adhesive. So far I have caught a couple, but have not seen too many beetles on my crops yet. The cucumbers are unscathed and doing well, and they were my primary concern for beetle damage (it was unbelievable last year which is why I looked into making the traps). Just wanted to share this in case you want another idea that is more rainproof. I have enough supplies to make multiple traps if they fill up quickly or if I get a ton of beetles around. Like you, I have these cups suspended from my trellis at varying heights. We should compare notes as the season progresses.

If you are worried about beetles getting out before dying I would put downward-facing funnels in the top of each cup. That might mean less attractant scent gets out, but plenty still would. That would also prevent large non-target species from getting in as well.

RMB

If you make any more, why don't you post some pictures of how you make them. Your narrative description was clear to me but some people might prefer pictures to see what you mean.

You should do fine with the trap you've devised. When I run out of tayuya powder, I may bait and switch with something like your tanglefoot, felt, and clove oil, literally. :0) The rain-dilution of my mixture means it has to be refreshed when it's too watery and has lost its CB "come-hither". The only way I can tell is when there aren't any dead beetles in the cups.

I decided not to use anything yellow as a visual attractant, simply because beneficial insects are sometimes drawn to some shades of yellow. I learned it by accident when I used some Dollar General yellow plastic bag strips to tie up my tomato vines last year. Every bee and wasp in the vicinity came to crawl over the yellow surface and investigate. I later discovered that it isn't color that bees and wasps are attracted to but the ultraviolet light emitted by some shades or hues of various colors, including yellow. Since the human eye can't distinguish these ultraviolet light differences, I decided to rely entirely on the cucurbitan odor emitted by the tayuya powder. But you should know pretty quickly if your Tanglefoot is catching beneficials attracted to those yellow cups.

It's a relief to find SOMETHING to control cucumber beetles, even if it's homemade.

ecopit

No, I'm not worried about the insects escaping the poisoned bait, more worried about rainwater dilution of the mixture. I do prefer to have that large surface area to emit the cucurbitan attractant odor, simply because cuke beetles can do so much damage in such a short period of time and need to be dispatched ASAP.

In this area, Spring seems to bring a gradual buildup in numbers of these beetles, and August brings another wave of them.

Anney,

I am trying this this year and thus far I only saw one cuke beetle in my yard. That was when I set out the traps. I don't know if it's still early for them or not, but after putting out the traps I haven't seen any cuke beetles in the cup or on plants. Normally cuke beetles are present in droves and feast on cucurbits to the point I can't grow them and they do a number on my beans as well. They are the single greatest pest problem I have and it's reliable each year.

The only thing I have done differently than you are is I used sevin undiluted to mix with the attractant. It immediately rained for days and the cups became about half full with the mixture plus rainwater. At this point, about 2 weeks after setting the cups out there is little of anything left in the cups. I am sure much of the water simply evaporated, but there isn't even much of the powder left so something must be eating it.

I am surprised there are no dead cuke beetles in it, but I don't think anything else would want to eat the mixture so where would the powder have gone to?

As long as I continue to not see the cuke beetles I am happy.

raisemybeds

Does your trap also kill very many beneficial insects? I am looking for something I can make quickly to get rid of my growing cuke bug problem and would rather not wait to order the tayuya powder over the net. Of course, I don't know that I will be able to find the Tanglefoot porducts around here either, but surely I can find soemthing that should work. Where were you able to find yours? Thanks!

I just went out to check on my bait-cups and several of them already have little dark bodies sunk into the mix. I can't tell if they're cuke beetles or not. There were LOTS of other critters out among the plants though, bees and wasps, two butterflies, a spotted fire-engine-red ladybug, and a pink ladybug, also spotted, some ants, and a grasshopper passing through. It's a very busy place!

A solitary bee:

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A fuzzy baby Crenshaw:

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justaguy

Yeah, the cuke beetles are my worst pest, too. Did you know they aren't a problem where soils are sandy? I guess they need substantial soil to overwinter in. That's probably why we don't hear from many coastal people complaining about this pest, though the adults are wafted by summer wind-currents almost anywhere in the US.

The big test for these controls is still to come, I believe, probably later this month. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. So far I don't have any holes in my leaves from cuke beetles.

As raisemybeds suggests, maybe we should all compare notes at the end of the season to see how these various traps using beetle attractants worked.

I have a related question, I have only this year started growing herbs and veg in containers (tomatoes and bell peppers only) since I wanted to start small. I have noticed these cucumber beetles on my herbs (parsley, basil and sage is where I have seen them. Why are the sticking around in my yard if I don't have any cukes? Are they eating up my peppers and toms?

Cheers!

reaver

Cucumber beetles will feed on more than cucurbits (melons & cukes).

"Host Plants

"Cucumbers, cantaloupes, winter squash, pumpkins, gourds, summer squash and watermelons are preferred by adult striped cucumber beetles. They also feed on beans, peas, corn and blossoms of several wild and cultivated plants. Larvae develop on these and related cucurbits. The spotted cucumber beetle has a wider host range and, in addition to cucurbits, may be found on beans, peas, potato, beet, tomato, eggplant and cabbage. The larvae is the well-known southern corn rootworm which feeds on the roots of corn, peanuts, small grains and many wild grasses." Cucumber Beetles

So I'd kill those pests to protect your plants.

So far I have seen either the striped or the spotted beetles on my cukes, muskmelons, watermelons, pole beans, peppers, squash, and corn. The only thing they haven't bothered are the toms...at least not that I have seen. I have another round of corn I just planted a week ago and melons at different stages so I need to get rid of those SOBs (sons of beetles)...yeah, it's not funny until they're dead.

I just put out some traps as well, though I'm experimenting with a different attractant, since I don't have the tayuya powder. I peeled some zucchinis and blended it up, which (iirc) is what you did last year, anney, though with cucumbers, not zukes. (A few days ago I ran across the thread you started on this subject last year.) I'm also not using Sevin, as I don't have any. I'm trying some with neem and some with pyrethrin. I'll see what happens.

iacche

Will you let us know in this thread how it works? Pyrethrin insecticide is good against cuke beetles, so if your attractant works, you should be good to go.

Do keep in mind that all the literature claims the more bitter the cucurbit, the stronger is its attraction to cuke beetles. If the zukes don't work well, you could try clove oil, which is more readily available than the tayuya root powder. Clove oil attracts only the females, but if they're all wiped out, their overall numbers are certainly going to decrease because they can't reproduce.

I have buffalo gourd seeds on my list for next year -- their leaves and roots are also a strong attractant, though it's an invasive "weed" in the southwest.

Good luck. These beetles are one of the worst crop pests in the US.

Update. I didn't find any beetles in my cups. It was quite cool last night (50s), but that can't count for much. I checked the plants last night around midnight and caught and crushed a couple beetles, so they were out. Officially I had 4 cups with pyrethrin and one with neem. In the neem cup, the neem was in a layer on the surface (it is neem oil, after all). But the pyrethrin cups didn't have that problem.

I have the spotted cucumber beetles, not the striped, and they just seem to be going after my beans so far. Last year they were horrendous, ripping the leaves to shreds and leaving scars in the beans, and then they got my squash and I lost almost all of my squash (save the yellow crookneck) to some nasty bacterial wilt. So far this year I don't have as many beetles.

I may just order some of that tayuya powder rather than mess around any longer. It's about $32 with shipping, but considering the time I spent last year hand-catching the little bastards, and the number of beans I had to toss or trim scar tissue off of, it's probably worth it.

iacche

Temps apparently do affect the activity of cuke beetles. Look at this:

"Temperature and the length of the growing season affect the life cycle of cucumber beetles. In the Midwest and northern states, striped cucumber beetles overwinter as adults in protected areas under dense grass, near buildings, in fence rows, and in woodlots. They become active early in the spring when temperatures begin to go above 50°F. Spotted cucumber beetles do not overwinter in northern areas but migrate in from southern states each year, arriving around June. In the southern states, spotted cucumber beetles emerge two to four weeks after the striped cucumber beetle." Cucumber Beetles - Integrated Pest Management

The site above has also ranked cucurbit varieties in order of cucumber beetle preference about half-way down the page. All of the zucchini varieties listed are "highly preferred", so your thinking about using zucchini as a bait is spot on. This site has very good information about these pests.

I don't think the beetles have started feeding voraciously yet except in the deep South, even though they're present in small numbers in other areas. I'm a couple of zones south of you and still don't see any of the usual damage, though I did see two of the buggers on my melon leaves this morning. At this altitude we still have some pretty cool nights in the high 50s, and nights are when the beetles are most active in hot weather. There were a lot of small dark bodies suspended in the baited Sevin mixture, and I suspect they're instars -- I've seen a couple of them on the leaves, too.

This is neat! Thanks for the info! I am on the east coast of Florida and I had beetle problems last year. So far this year its ok.

Could you hang the cups under a big leaf? To keep the rain out of it?

I posted this over on the clinic forum (no responses yet), but it might be relevant here too. (And this will also bump this important subject back up.)

I have small spotted beetles going after my beans. I have always assumed they are spotted cucumber beetles, but I'm beginning to question that.
They are the size and shape of cucumber beetles, but they aren't yellow, they're more of a reddish brown color (and I never seen Cuke Beetles described as anything but yellow). I don't think it is a CO Bean Beetle, because every picture I've ever seen of those shows a beetle that is shaped like a ladybug. These are oblong, not round.

Do spotted cucumber beetles come in a darker color, or is this something entirely different?

Sorry, I don't have a picture.

Hoo, boy! They sound like Mexican bean beetles, not good to have. Take a look at the adult a bit of the way down the page. Is that it?

I don't know any control for them. They're kin to ladybugs, and these bait traps don't attract them. See if a GardenWeb search can give you some ideas for controlling them.

westexan - I do not see much of anything in my traps yet except for one single cuke beetle, and a bunch of tiny black gnats, so no beneficials have gotten in there. My cucumbers look marvelous so far and they are growing well, starting to climb the trellis. I don't see a whole lot of beetles yet, but have definitely seen a few here and there. There is definitely something chewing on my pole bean leaves adjacent to the cuke trellis, which I have spritzed with neem. I strongly suspect, as some of you have pointed out, that they just haven't arrived en masse yet, but will any day. I am going to make some fresh traps tomorrow and hang them around the pole beans too.

I got the tanglefoot adhesive at an Agway farm supply. It may also be purchased on Amazon, I believe. It seems to me by this time last year I was beseiged with cuke beetles and crying my eyes out already. Not one cuke did I harvest last season!

Nope, it's not the CO bean beetle. The pic didn't turn up on that page you linked to (at least not for me -- probably a computer thing). But I googled it and found a wonderful page of beetle pics (linked below).

Apparently I've got Bean Leaf Beetles:

Bean Leaf Beetle (Cerotoma trifurcata): Adult beetles are reddish to yellowish in color, 1/4 inch long, have three or four black spots in a row along the inner edge of wing covers, and a black band occurs near the outer margins of wing covers. Larvae are whitish, dark brown at both ends, segmented, and have six small legs near the head. Adults chew holes in leaves, feeding on them from the under surface; larvae feed on roots, nodules, and on stems just below the soil surface, which can girdle the plant.

more pics of them here (they do appear in yellow as well, which might have added to my confusion):
http://www.ent.iastate.edu/imagegal/coleoptera/beanlb/blb_yellow_red.html
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/M1185.html
http://www.oznet.k-state.edu/dp_hfrr/extensn/problems/beanleaf.htm

They don't seem to kill the plants, for me they've just been a pain in the ass. Luckily, this year (so far) I've seen far fewer than last year. (Though last year was horrible for a lot of things. We had Japanese Beetles everywhere.) It's a very strange thing. I've combed through my gardening books (the main ones being E. Smith's Vegetable Gardener's Bible and Rodale's Encyc. of Organic Gardening) and none of them mention Bean Leaf Beetles. Perhaps I just missed it somehow.

I put fresh Cucumber Beetle traps (in bright yellow plastic cups this time) among my squashes. I did see my first striped CBs this evening. Caught and killed about 15 of them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Beetles

I'm being overrun with them as we speak. I crushed as many as i could get to. They are fast, hard to catch. Might have to make up some traps.