The problem with cucumber beetles is not the feeding per se, but the transmission of Bacterial Wilt. It only takes one beetle with a dirty mouth to destroy your cucumber and/or muskmelon crop. That's why waiting until the things are in high numbers before you start control methods is a waste of time. Controlling cuke beetles organically is next to impossible. They have been the bedevilment of farmers for over a hundred years. Here is the first line from the section on cucumbers in Peter Henderson's book "Gardening For Profit" written in 1867. "The growing of the Cucumber out-of-doors is, in most places , occasioned by the attacks of the "Striped Bug."When seed is sown in the open ground, repeated sowings are often utterly destroyed by this pest, despite of all remedies." Here are the tricks I've learned to keep the evil ones at bay. Plant your cucurbits as early as possible. Fertilize them well and get them up and running as fast as possible. Use IRT mulch for melons. Use row cover until flowering. Plant a "trap" crop such as zucchini or Hubbard squash at the periphery of your garden early on so it is up and growing at the time your valued crop is still protected. As soon as you see any cucumber beetles on the trap crop, spray the entire crop with a pyrethrin such as bifenthrin. I spray at night using a flashlight to avoid hurting bees. 7 to 10 days later, check again. Any beetles, blast the trap crop. Keep blasting the trap crop until you see no more beetles. 5. Once your crops are exposed and you see any cuke beetles, you must spray them as well. I have found with the trap crop method, the beetles disappeared for most of the season. Cuke beetles are strong fliers and will arrive in you garden from neighboring overwintering sites. 6. Succession plant your cucumbers, summer squash. Once a plant is infected with bacterial wilt, you have about two to three weeks until the plant croaks. 7. For organic growers, kaolin clay works OK, but keeping the plants covered with kaolin diminishes photosynthesis and once the plants are sprawling, I found it difficult to cover the plants. I also found the beetles were still a problem, though less so. For the SVB, I spray with bifenthrin as well. I also, inject the vines with spinosad. I haven't lost a plant to SVB for 3 years since using this method. Hope this helps.

Cucumber beetles and squash bugs are two of the worst pests in any garden. As a certified organic grower, the strongest "control" in our arsenal is 1% Rotenone--which will kill most anything except adult squash bugs and cucumber beetles (and ants--I've actually had ants live in 1% Rotenone powder). The best method of control of any pest is a "trap" crop. Sometimes you have to forfeit growing most cucurbits for a season if you're so infected with cucumber beetles or squash bugs that you simply can't continue. Of course a trap crop is a small crop of the type preferred by the insect you're trying to eradicate. Anney mentioned the squash that cuke beetles seem to be most attractive in her area, so she should use that. Do a small planting to attract the beetles to that area--it need only be 4 feet by 4 feet, or 10 feet by 10 feet, whatever suits you. When all the cuke beetles in the world are feeding on the trap crop, do them in with whatever suits you and you feel won't destroy the universe. I use pure ethanol. Do a succession of these small trap crop plantings, and at the end of the season, you'l have made a horrific dent in their population. (Unless your next door neighbor is working against you with his crop of cuke beetles allowed to run amuck.) It hurts to have to sacrifice crops you love to eat while your eradication process is ongoing--but it's sometimes necessary, and I've had to do it in the past. If you research both insects I mentioned, you'll find they overwinter in trash and debris and litter--and of course in all this stuff which is in the woods nearby, which makes it difficult--but garden cleanly and don't have junk lying around to give them instant access--leaves, old bales of hay and straw, old mulch, etc., all the things they love to hide in over winter. Good work Anney, and others, who are trying to solve the problem. I'm an organic market grower, and some years I have to leave a 10' by 10' growth of cantaloupes or watermelons to herd up all the squash bugs and cucumber beetles that were on 5 acres of cataloupes and/or watermelons, then kill the thousands of those insects that congregate on the small planting. That's the beauty of a "trap" crop. I can either spray 5 acres--or I can wait until the planting is over and leave a small trap planting where I can kill them all as they flock to it. It makes a big difference in time, energy, and money spent.

Strong and healthy plants can better withstand attacks from insect pests then can plants growing with nutrient imbalances or lack of nutrients. There have been numnerous studies that demonstrate that over the years. However, that does not mean plants will not be hit by insect pests. There are numerous strategies a gardener can use to help protect what we grow from these buggers. Starting, of course with the soil, being sure the soils pH is where it should be and the nutrients are in balance and there is sufficient organic matter in that soil. Companion planting, including trap crops over aways, covering the plants with Floating Row Covers (making sure you are not trapping the insect pest inside), encouraging beneficials to hang around by planting things they can feed on until their favorite prey comes along, and then using the least toxic stuff when necessary, but not spraying poisons before absolutely needed. For this year squishing any eggs you find can be of some help. If Insecticidal Soaps are not enough then maybe Neem Oil products might help, keeping in mind even those are broad spectrum poisons that will kill beneficials as well as pests.

Every now and then I have a year with no squash bugs at all. The last year like that here may have been 2011. I have no idea why they don't find us some years because they do show up most years. I hate squash bugs but I'll try to control them for at least a while so we can harvest and eat squash. Once I have lots of squash in the freezer, I tend to just let the plants die. There's only so much time available in the summer, and I have lots of other ways to spend my time that do not involve scouting the underside of every squash leaf for squash bug eggs. Maybe someone with a smaller garden has the time and patience to do that, but I don't. Some years I grow the plants under floating row cover and some years I don't. The row cover will help protect the plants from pests, but I still have to lift it and hand-pollinate the blossoms and while a gardener is doing that, the squash bugs and squash vine borers can sneak onto the plants. I love summer squash, but the constant onslaught of squash bugs and squash vine borers can make it very challenging to get a good harvest. I do grow some C. moschata summer squash varieties with excellent tolerance of/resistance to squash vine borers, but the squash bugs attack those plants as much as they attack the others. One advantage of the C. moschata squash varieties is that they grow so rampantly they often can outgrow the diseases spread by the squash bugs.