I think I've made some progress in the bug/beetle problem. Last year they got my first planting of winter squash. Something like chipmunks chewed up the beautiful squash from my second planting. They must have had a burrow right under the squash bed. We found a big hole ... so I think a coyote got them. Hope so.

I noticed a couple of years ago that for zucchini, costata romanesco is somewhat resistant to striped cucumber beetles but to be on the safe side, I covered the summer squash bed with garden fabric (Agribon) and didn't take it off until the squash were blossoming around July 4. (I'm in NH) I have a low tunnel covered with fabric that DH made for me.

I planted some marigolds but I don't think they helped. Eventually the bugs did show up but the plants were in production size. I noticed the cuke beetles inside the female squash blossoms in the morning. I toured another garden where she had yellow buckets in her squash patch. They had some water in them. She said it was to trick the beetles. They would think the bucket was a squash flower and drown. I'll add that idea to my arsenal next year.

I started going on patrol in the morning with a bowl of soapy water. Most of the eggs are on the underside of the leaves and it's hard to scrape them off when they are next to the big leaf veins. I was able to flip a couple of squash bugs into the soapy water.

I may have purchased cucumber seed for a variety that was more resistant to beetles. I also started them indoors. Planted them in a young blueberry bed with some parsley and marigolds. One variety has down much better than the other.

I planted a brand new winter squash bed on the other side of the house, hoping the bugs wouldn't find it this year. I did find a couple of striped cucumber beetles but I planted the squash quite late and I think we were in between hatches.

Good luck. This year I don't have very many Japanese beetles but a friends said she gets 30-40 every morning and could get more but she has to go to work. But then, the tomato horn worms have arrived in my garden.

One more thing. My pea fences stay up all year and this gives the birds a good place to perch. We feed birds in the winter but expect them to eat bugs in the summer. I know they're eating some of the bugs.

Probably because they exist in numbers that we cannot comprehend. And a lot of them have wings. Maybe it is better to reach a level of acceptance? You can't kill all of the bugs all of the time, especially not if you are trying to follow organic methods. If you get some vegetables, then good. It is common practice for many people still to plant more than they will need to make up for the inevitable losses they will sustain over the course of the growing season.

I only got a handful of zucchini this summer, but as it turns out, a handful is all I really want. And I did not drive myself crazy trying to save them. It was a relief. Also, some plants can withstand heavy feeding. Like my chard. There are these beetles whose numbers peak in July that like to eat the chard, so I haven't harvested in a month because all the leaves look like swiss cheese. The beetles are almost gone and the new leaves forming look fine. The plants are large now and I am sure I will have plenty of chard in the cool months like I did last year.

So take heart! You get a gold medal for keeping your sanity in the face of overwhelming odds! :)

The bugs win because they don't care. I am winning beter than you by using Triacecide spray. I WIN THE SILVER

Foolishpleasure,

What is Triacecide?

It's a fluoro-pyrethrin (pyrethrin "on roids") with a residual life long enough that I, personally, wouldn't apply to a vegetable garden unless things were predicted to be or already are out of control. That's just me, though...it's not on many people's "evil" list.

It is commonly used in the commercial melon/squash production industry and it is believed to be one of the safer pyrethrins if diluted properly.