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.

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!

Kristin, If you want to put a row cover on your plants, you can but I am not sure it will help since they (or their eggs) are likely to be all over the plants, and even underneath the plants. Check the backs of leaves for eggs and remove them and destroy them and that will go a long way to cut down on the population, especially with regards to squash bugs. I don't worry about cucumber beetles although, technically, they can carry and spread disease, although in my garden they generally don't. It could be that I have a healthy population of beneficial insects that keep their numbers low for me. I'd be more concerned about squash bugs, and especially about stink bugs if they show up too. One way to get the squash bugs is to go outside with a small hand-held vaccum and vacuum them up off the plants. It works like a charm, especially when they are young and small and don't have the sense to run away when they see you coming. Another way is to lay a board or shingle down on the ground right beside the squash plants. The squash bugs will seek shelter under that board during the heat of the day and then all you have to do is lift the board and step on them and squish them. Simple as pie If you put a small container of water in your garden (something like the saucer to a flower pot or an aluminum pie tin), it will help attract toads, frogs, lizards and other beneficial creatures that like to eat bugs. I have a bird feeder and bird bath in my garden too, and the birds that come to visit them often sit on the garden fence or on the scarecrow (who apparently does not scare them) or on the tomato cages and eat bugs throughout the day. Some people sprinkle garlic (chopped and minced by their own hand, or purchased garlic powder) on the ground around their squash and cucumber plants, and feel it helps repel the squash vine borers, squash bugs and cucumber beetles. You might give that a try. Don't worry about monoplizing the board. You are using it exactly as it is meant to be used and it gives us more to talk about on hot days when we may choose to spend less time out in the garden and more time inside in the air conditioning! Dawn

I've had the opposite experience! The last few years I have had bad infestations. This year I haven't seen one! I also haven't seen bees this year in my garden. Usually its swarming with bees. I have not used any pesticides on the garden this year and have used them very sparingly in the past. In the past I've squished them. I also may dust with Sevin (maybe once or twice a season. I really hate to use it because I know how bad it is.)