There is a recent thread--sorry I don't know how to link them--about using red dye #28 as a phytoxin, with clove oil or cucumbers or bitter melon as a bait. I started it late this year, when I ran across the thread, but it does seem to work. I haven't seen many beetles recently. My cuke plants are alive, although not producing much. This was a weird year though. I just harvested my first eggplants last week. Even the tomatoes are ho-hum. Lettuce, kohlrabi, chard and leeks are great though. The spaghetti squash gave us six from one vine. Okra is producing slowly. A dozen plants just give us one meal a week. Strange year. With El Nino, maybe we can expect a good snowy winter. The garden always seems extra healthy after a lot of snow. Poor man's fertilizer is an old expression about snow you don't hear much anymore. Before I was doing much about cuke beetles, I did notice that the population and the damage varies quite a lot from year to year. It is hard to know if any of our strategies are the cause of a decrease. It keeps me hopeful though, and I plant some cukes every year, and get a few before the damage, and some years I get a whole season. Have a great fall, all.

Homebody, your suspicion about bacterial wilt is probably correct, if you have cucumber beetle problems. You should also inspect the stem of any dying squash vines, to see if squash vine borers are responsible. If you find their larvae, or the holes left by them, then prevention next year is your best hope for success. And if your "white aphid looking creatures" look like this, then you should try to kill them before they reach adulthood. The symptoms of squash bug infestation can appear very much like bacterial wilt. Butternut squashes (Cucurbita moschata) are more resistant to beetles & borers than C. pepo (pumpkins & summer squashes) and C. maxima (buttercup, hubbard, banana squash). I quit growing zucchini for that reason, and now grow Tromboncino (a butternut relative) instead. It has few problems... but it does take up a bit of space, unless trellised. You can protect young squash plants with floating row cover, until they either blossom, or outgrow it. This gives the plants time to build up strength, so they have a fighting chance. For me, this prevents SVB, and by delaying the start of attack, reduces the population of cucumber beetles & squash bugs. I could not grow most winter squash successfully without the use of row covers - I highly recommend their use. The use of nylons or some other impenetrable wrap (around the base of the squash stem) can prevent the SVB moth from laying their eggs there. Also, try to grow squash varieties that root at the nodes; bury the stems early, to encourage early rooting... this will help the plants to survive, if SVB does kill the main stem. The last thing that you should do (after killing the squash bug nymphs) is to eliminate any pests that might otherwise over-winter. SVB pupae lay dormant underground, so a Fall tilling will kill many of them. Cleaning up any debris in or near the garden will help to reduce the population of squash bugs the following year.

I have never had a squash bug problem. I rotate all my squash to a new location every year. Next year will be the fourth year in a new place. After that they will go back where they were to begin with. But I do have enough property to do this. I don't know how many years one has to leave a field squash free to be rid of SVB.

Both stink bugs and SVB are highly mobile insects. Spraying your garden with chemicals as a preventative can/will, as others have said above, have more of a negative outcome than positive. Stinkbugs lay their eggs during summer and hatch just a few days after. The bugs over-winter wherever they can find refuge from extremely cold temps. Because they fly and migrate, these conditions do not have to be right in your garden, which makes localized control nearly ineffective. However, a good fall clean-up, with a mind toward lowering next year's pests, surely won't hurt. In my area of E. Tn., throughout winter our homes are invaded by stink bugs seeking warmth. So, to do your part to decrease their numbers, reduce, as much as possible, places the bugs can find shelter from harsh weather. If you use a winter mulch, turn it a few times during the winter months, disrupting any hiding places for over-wintering bugs. That said, a while ago I read an article about a man who designed a simple trap made from a few slats of wood and 2 sheets of poster board that gave shelter to stink bugs and made them easy to collect and kill. The trap was set against a south facing building or exterior wall of your house. The bugs were attracted to the warm wall and crawled into the trap to huddle together. I''m sure you could easily search for that article. SVB pupate in the soil right under the plants they infested. The first control is to kill the larvae while they are still in the vines. Next is to till the soil multiple times before spring planting. The tilling will turn the soil, exposing the pupae to the elements. Search the web and look for images of the pupae. When you till, remove any that you see. Unfortunately, these too are good fliers, and we have little control over what our neighbors do in their gardens. Instead of using chems as a fall prevention, think about row covers and other practices that prevent the moths from laying eggs directly on your crops.