Now I'm thinking rather than plant my cucurbits promptly and trying to fend off the cucumber beetles, I am wondering if it would be a good idea to just wait until much later on in the season (say mid-June, early July) and hope the cucumber beetles will have given up interest by then and moved on to some other poor sucker's garden. I grow most of my cucumbers and squash for storage anyways, so it wouldn't be that big a deal to not have them 45 days later than normal. But if I'm going to be devoting a decent proportion of my garden space to cucurbits, I don't want to be wasting my time.

But yes if you don't want to use any stronger pesticides and IF you can time your plantings to the beetle cycle in your area it can help. Linked an article on it below.

But it is difficult to do as they have Q 6-9 week multi-hatch cycles in warmer climates so that is 3 active cycles for me in the average year. That's why the row covers and hand pollination has proven to be the most productive for me.

Last year I added Kaolin clay dust (Surround) to my pest controls and was very pleased with the results, especially with squash bugs and stink bugs. Gives everything a gray color but I can live with it if it means more good fruit.

Dave

PS: I'm curious about how you store cukes for any length of time?

Frank

The supplement market buys a lot of it and sells it at a huge markup in pressed capsules. The markup on the "miracle organic spray" market is even greater.

It's cheaper for most people to make their own pesticide "miracle sprays" by buying the supplement versions and mixing their own sprays.

If you're really into looking hard for it...you can occasionally find it sold (usually from overseas sources) as a food purifier supplement and shipped to you.

nccrn, what is the variety of resistant cucumber? So far as I knew a resistant cucumber variety did not exist.

Hand-held rechargeable vacs are getting more popular for cuke beetle control, as well as coaxing chickens to feed in the squash patch for an hour before dark.

I tried to make several traps last year but they did not work. The shop vac worked great but I didn't do it until very late so I think this year should go better. However, the cuc beetles actually did not have a negative effect on my squash or melons or cucs. They only harmed the dahlias and glads really.

The problems I had was it got too hot and my transplants were too big to start with. Then the weeds got out of control fast, even though I had plastic mulch and straw between the two beds.

I use Bug-b-gone Max with the active ingredient bifenthrin. With 1,000's of acres of corn around me, I get lots more bugs.

I grow many succession planting of squash and cucumbers. I can usually get the earliest ones( transplanted in high tunnels around April 10th) then about ever 3 to 4 weeks until late August.

I spray the first time I see cucumber beetles, then one week later. Then I scout and if I see any the 3rd week I spray one more time. Usually after that, I don't have cucumber beetles for the rest of that season. I can also usually get the last 1-2 plantings in without spraying too. If a crop gets infested, I just spray it and kill everything and get rid of it. Then wait for the next planting to produce.

It works for me on a larger scale, we have planted 1/2 acre of winter squash for the last two years and have had minimal problem.

Jay

::laughing::

That is not true at all!

I see no one has mentioned beneficial nematodes. I picked off the 300 adult beetles, watered with nematodes, and my problem was pretty much gone. The next generation was about 10 beetles. I picked them off, too, and laid soap traps around for any I missed.

I am now a big fan of nematodes :). Possible the best $10 I ever spent.

nc-cm...do you have a recipe for homemade chitosan spray?

I've also tried the traps. Big Fail.

I've also tried growing Little Leaf when I really want slicers. Little Leaf isn't a good slicer and it died from wilt as fast as the other varieties.

I finally got down to waiting til dusk when I hoped the bees are gone and spraying a feedant insecticide.

'zzita....please tell us more about the nematodes. I wouldn't mind spending 10 bucks to get rid of the little buggers. '

What do you want to know?

The nematodes eat the cucumber beetle larvae.

You get them at the nursery, where they should be in a fridge. They come in bit of moist foam rubber, which you rinse out into a watering jug and then pour on the soil. Do it on a cloudy day. Directions on the packet.

There are a lot in the packet. You can do your whole yard, or do one bed multiple times for good measure.

But hand picking works best, yet I hate it most.