OK, I too am suffering under the assault--this is a new pest for me; never had them before yet this year, they're here in droves. Here's what I do. I shake them out of the blossoms early in the morning and into my hand and then just roll them between my fingers to squash them. (Let me add that killing ANYTHING is a highly uncharacteristic thing for me to do, but these guys are decimating my plans--not just flowers, but the leaves.) I have found them on zinnia leaves, my cukes, pumpkin, squashes and cataloupes. I have found them on my sunflowers as well. However, they clearly prefer the pumpkin, cukes, squash, melons. My observations are as follows: (1) They congregate inside blossoms, as well as under leaves (look for the ones will a zillion toothmarks!!), inside the new leaves before they have unfurled, and at the base of the plant, at the soil-line; (2) when disturbed, they generally FIRST drop to the ground, THEN fly off; (3) when they drop to the ground, they often head to the base of the plant. They are not that fast. It is like a game to catch and roll them bet. my fingers. I count while I play this game. I have found that a few fly off, but I manage to get most or many on any given "murder spree." I catch the majority of them when the fall to the ground during my attacks. Some I get on the blossoms and on leaves. A quick squish, a heartfelt apology to the bug, and on to the next victim. They do seem more lethergic in the morning. I manage to get 50-100 per day, with 3-4 outings at various points in the day. I have been doing this for over 1 week. I think I MAY be making a dent in their population. I do seem to be seeing fewer than a week ago...but perhaps this has something more to do w/ their lifecycle than my murderous efforts.

The question really is whether you think you'll get a hard frost (e.g. the moisture in the soil actually freezes to any extent) or not. The tubers will survive in the soil with cool temperatures, just not frost. Remember, they are shallow root plants so you only need to freeze a couple of inches of soil and you'll kill or damage the roots. It would take several weeks of ground frost to kill the tuber (think about what happens at the end of the season.) I too am in Zone 5, and am on the side of a lake (which usually means our temperatures are slightly higher than others) but you are more daring than I. But my reason is that most of mine are 8" tall already and I don't want to have to bother with coverings for frost warnings. Most of my tubers took 15 days to go from nothing to a cuttable sprout. Were they in the ground, that sprout would have had a couple of sets of leaves above the ground and would have been highly susceptible to frost. The up-side of your plan, however, is that even if the above-ground part gets frosted, a root system should get established as well, so a new sprout should come up quickly. Good luck, and let us know how it works out for you. Cheers, Russ

Thanks everyone - it's good to be back here, and good to be in the new house. Watch out lawn, your days are numbered, LOL! Julia, thanks for the offer! The sale sounds great - which Saturday is it? My sister's baby shower is on the 8th, but if the sale is the weekend before, I might try to make the trip over. Arbond, HI! I'm not an expert (I'll leave that accolade to the many other daylily growers on here who know FAR more than I do), but I can offer some general tips for growing them in your area (I'm from the Southern Tier): If the excavator took off the top layer of grass/thatch, check and make sure you still have some good soil left to plant in. Amending the soil never hurts, and if you have access to it, compost is the best soil addition I've used. If you don't want to amend the whole area, at least add a good amount of bagged compost or good topsoil to the planting holes when you transplant. You're right, the daylilies will spread (some spread faster than others). Landscape fabric inhibits their ability to spread, so you have a couple choices. You can either NOT use the fabric, and use a 3" layer of mulch (like pine bark mulch, not nuggets) around the plants, and do periodic weeding. Or, you can plant through the fabric and just leave a larger hole around the plant to allow for some spreading (say, leave 8" all around the existing clump) - that way you'll be weeding less. I'm not a fan of landscape fabric (I'd rather weed and let things spread on their own), but if you DO use the fabric, get the heavier, fibrous stuff, not the cheap semi-perforated plastic. The cheap-o stuff won't last, and is a headache to remove because it shreds/rips like crazy. (Our new house has both kinds of fabric in the one planting bed - yick, it's all on its way OUT of here.) I hope that helps, arbond! Laurel

This is my first time trying. I was going to cut it when it was 2-3" but when I went out and touched it, the darn thing snapped off in my hand. I put it in water to root and in a few days the roots were forming. I was advised to plant it up, making sure to keep the soil moist. I did pot it in a 1L pot and will probably sink the pot into the ground later. I chose the larger pots so that the roots would have a better chance to form. Nights here are starting to get cool so it won't be long before frost hits. Last year I dug a trench and put some pots in there for the winter. I watered the pots well first and then covered the pot with soil. Didn't lose anything. Marg