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.

Is the flower blooming and then after that the cuke turns brown and falls off ? That is a pollination problem. Do you have enough bees or other insects around to pollinate your cucumbers ? If not, you may need to pollinate by hand. More info in the following 3 FAQ's from the vegetable garden forum frequently asked questions section ... http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/cornucop/ - - How Do I Pollinate My Plants by Hand? - - Squash/cucumber/melon flower: male vs. female - - My squash/cukes/melons are not fruiting! These websites have some pictures of male vs. female flowers ... Cucumber - http://gardeningwithwilson.com/2008/02/23/pollinating-cucumber-flowers/ Pumpkin - http://gardeningwithwilson.com/2008/04/22/pollinating-pumpkin-flowers/ Watermelon - http://gardeningwithwilson.com/2008/09/24/wonder-wha-watermelon-flowers-look-like/ Cantaloupe (Muskmelon) - http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/senior/vegetabl/muskmel4.htm One type of Winter Squash - http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/sshow.asp?ssid=2&slddtl=1 Yellow Squash (male on left, female on right) - Zucchini Squash - http://santarosa.ifas.ufl.edu/hot_topic_five.shtml

I just wanted to do a little follow-up on the corn rootworm damage issue. I got a little too busy to follow my own advice. Several weeks have gone by and the beetle population increased while I wasn't paying attention. Below are two photos of ornamental sunflowers about 5-inches in diameter. The first photo is of a bloom that has been open for a about a day. The beetles don't seem to begin feasting on the sunflowers until they open up and begin producing pollen. As soon as the pollen appears, they also begin ravaging the outer ray petals -- as seen in the first photo below. This second photo is about a day later in our blistering hot, dry weather. Normally, the blooms will look great for a week or longer without the beetle damage. It is kind of interesting that a defense mechanism of these beetles is to just fold their legs up under themselves when disturbed. They simply allow their bodies to freefall to the ground. I have even played with some I find on the leaves and when you bother them, they will just begin rolling down the leaf until they fall off. You can take advantage of this habit by simply mixing up a little soapy dishwater in a small dish. Hold this dish under the blooms and they will fall right into it. I like to call this, The Dish of Death. (Heh, heh, heh.) This whole process only takes a few minutes in the garden and can be repeated as necessary. The Dish of Death IronBelly

jo3ponies, Hold a white sheet of paper underneath the leaves and thump the leaves. See if those little yellow and gray spots fall off onto the paper and start moving around. That would be the first clue they are insects. If you have a magnifying glass, you can look at them through the magnifying glass and see if they look like insects or eggs. Insects generally would have legs you could see. About how big are the yellow and gray spots? 1/16th inch? 1/8th inch? 1/32nd inch long? Figuring out the size helps you begin to figure out what you have. What you would, could or should do with them depends on what they are. You could, of course, spray the undersides of the leaves with a general purpose pesticide. If you do that, please do it in the evening hours when the bees are inactive. I think it is better to be sure of what you have before you spray, because even organic pesticides can harm beneficial insects so I try to avoid them as much as possible. If you have something like aphids on the leaves of your cucumber plants, spraying the undersides of the leaves with a sharp stream of water often will knock them off. If they come back, spray them again. After a few days of that, they usually pack up the bags and move someplace else. I'm going to link the Texas A&M Cucurbit Problem Solver. Maybe you'll see something on it that looks like what you're seeing. If you click on the link, it will take you to the Cucurbit Problem Solver main page. Then, on that page click on the word "leaf" if you want to go to the page that deals with foliage disorders, or click on "insects" to go to that page. Then, on each page, look at the photos to see if you see one that looks similar to what you're seeing. If so, click on the photo and it takes you to more info about what you're seeing. There are many insects that can and will attack cucumbers, but about the only pests I see on my cucumber plants are cucumber beetles or blister beetles. I think aphids are a good possibility merely because they are so common. Leaves can curl for many reasons, and the curling of the leaves may or may not be related to whatever you're seeing on the leaves. Also, you might want to google and look at a photo of lady bug larvae. They are grey and sort of orange (the orange could look yellow I think) and look nothing at all like a lady bug. If that is what you have, they are beneficial insects who are busy gobbling up pests like aphids and mites that are on your cucumber plants. The first time someone sees lady bug larvae, they tend to think they're bad insects but actually they are beneficial ones. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: TAMU Cucurbit Problem Solver