Scott Make sure the holes are large enough at the bottom of the cup to allow the odor to flow outward. Last year one gardener was disappointed because she used ground-up cloves (instead of clove oil) and Sevin in cups with lids and side-holes, and she said it didn't work at all. Maybe it was the ground-up cloves that didn't work. But it might have been that the holes didn't allow much of the odor to waft out, too. I suppose that any opening large enough to allow enough air movement so the beetles sense the attractant is going to let the weather in as well. A feeder on the order of a hummingbird feeder with large holes at the bottom would probably be ideal, but of course nothing red that would attract those little birdies! More simply, I found that no lids, but a cup with an open top holding about a tablespoon of the tayuya powder and just enough insecticide-strength Seven to make a soup did just fine. If it rains and dilutes the mixture, just replace it with a new mixture when you know it's stopped raining for a while. The purpose is to make SURE the beetles know the stuff is there for the taking! As you know, they can work fast to chew up your cucurbit plants, so the sooner they're dead, the better. One of the links above mentions that you can use the safe for humans #28 Red Dye instead of Sevin as the insecticide. It works quite differently than Sevin but is fatal for the beetles, too. Apparently in the beetles' bodies, it's photo-reactive in the sun and destroys the beetles' tissues from within. But I sure don't know where to get #28 Red Dye!

I had these pests for the first time this year. They seem to be a good candidate for "search and destroy" control. They feed on the top of the leaves and during the day. Much better than coming out at 2:00AM and hiding under the soil during the day. After many S&D missions in the spring, I thought they were gone so I stopped looking for them. But I found they were back in August. Now I just pull off the previous day's blossoms and that's where all the beetles are congregating. What could be easier?

They eat up all the flowers. You won't have a lot of cukes for your salad or to pickle or squash for Thanks Giving. :-(

My condolences. This year the striped beetles started on some struggling zucchini seedlings before I noticed them. I fertilized with fish emulsion which I sort of consider my garden remedy. The plants made it thru but it's only a couple of hills and I hand picked, too. Row cover went on the winter squash bed immediately and they seem to be bug free so far with the row cover off for about a week now. There are squash beetles around now. Hopefully, all the birds flitting around the yard are also being a help. We have bird feeders in the winter but take down April 1 because of bears. In the future, I'm going to put row cover on as soon as seedlings emerge.