momamamo The traps must be working -- I have seen only two cucumber beetles this year. But hundreds of squash bugs, which I HATE and have found no organic way to kill them! vgkg I used both clove oil and the tayuya powder as the bait and put out five bottles each of the poison stew on their sides, thought I'd cover all bases. I tuck the open end of the bottles under large leaves and keep a general lookout for deteriorating leaves and move them if necessary. From what I could tell of the posts last year, both baits work equally well, and my use of both of them limits any conclusion I personally might make about the best one. But I do know they're working for me. I have cukes in one place, melons way down at the end of that trellised row, and squash two rows over from them. They don't seem to bother my beans, though I know they can be a host plant for these pests. Here's a full list: Vegetable crops damaged include cucumber, squash, beet, bean, pea, sweet potato, okra, corn, lettuce, onion, and various cabbages. Bean and soybean are especially favored (Chittenden 1912, Saba 1970). Except for nematodes, the natural enemies of banded cucumber beetle are poorly known. The mermithid nematode Filipjevimermis leipsandra affects this species, and natural infection levels in South Carolina were reported to be in the range of 20 to 40 percent from May through October. Ants have been shown to be important egg predators in the tropics, and likely are important elsewhere. http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/veg/bean/banded_cucumber_beetle.htm I didn't know ants might be egg-predators until I read the link above, so I suppose that's good reason not to destroy them. Do try the clove oil and Sevin to see if the beetle numbers go down. This is usually the heaviest infestation time, and I think it's impossible to keep their numbers small by hand-killing them. If it doesn't work for you, you can always mix the clove oil with a little olive oil and use it for toothaches or to un-itch mosquito bites, as well as in cooking! It's anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and antifungal!

I agree with Kwoods, wouldn't be a good cp site. To answer part two of your question anyway, yes the CPs would eat your polinators. Pitcherplants especially like bees and wasps. In mid summer you can sometimes even hear this buzzing coming from all the "victims" piled one on another. They'll even fill so full of bees and other insects that they'll fall over. Funny thing is that Bees are also the primary polinators for pitcherplants. The plants are just smart enough to send up flowers early in the season before they open their pitchers (so they don't eat their own pollinators!). Hmm, noe all this has gotten me wondering... I wonder if anyone has ever collected pitcherplant honey and what it might taste like! (Also I wonder, if they did, if vegetarians could ethically eat it...) Lonnie

suckerforroses: Patience is key to stratifying seeds of North American plants of any type. In any case, the Venus Flytrap seed should have sprouted by now. That terrarium kit is the worst idea I have seen in all my decades for North American carnivorous plants in any case. First off, it is not for beginners. Second off, carnivorous plant seed rarely take 100 percent, so you rarely have all of the species germinate. Third off, terrariums are the best way to kill carnivorous plants by promoting fungus, reducing the amount of sun they can recieve, and the drainage problems of terrariums promote bacterial infection to boot. Oh, one other point is that carnivorousplants take years to grow to a good size, so is also terrible for those of us with little patience. Some of the seeds might even take 6 months to actually sprout if at all. If you keep the kit, try stratifying them again for 8 weeks as carnivorousplants advised and then when you take it out of the fridge, ditch the terrarium top, drill some holes in the bottom and place it in a tray of 1 inch water under good window or florescent light and hope for the best. You can never tell how long the seeds they sent you in those little gimmick kits have been sitting around in cold strorage. The only stay viable for about a year or two. The Venus Flytrap seeds do not need stratification, but can survive cold overwintering, so it wont hurt anything to keep them cold, but that kit did not even tell you that the Flytrap seeds did not need stratification I bet. The other North Amrican seeds from the pitcher plants and sundews will need stratification for sure. Without cold, damp conditions their seed coats do not break down and allow them to germinate. If you are interested in growing carnivorous plants, get a real bargain by trading or asking for plants from growers here or by buying from a specialist nursery and obtaining adult plants with no nonsense instructions or silly terrariums to start with. Not many carnivorous plants need a terrarium to grow well (only a few of the finicky tropicals) in most environments.

Hi Dawna, Thanks for the kind words. I just wanted to put together a little info sheet for everyone because the pests are so bad this year, and everyone has had a lot of questions. It sure has been raining a lot up your way. I hope all is well there. At least we aren't having to worry about wildfires or a hay shortage this year. Flooding, however, may be this summer's big issue. Dawn