Controlling Cucumber Beetle / Bacterial Wilt

[RayR]

I had striped cuke beetles up until a week ago.
I had a strategy where I attacked on multiple fronts. Cucumber beetles have a 60 day life cycle and the only way to defeat them is to break that cycle, which means you have to kill as many adults as possible plus you have to kill any eggs or larva that may be present. Adults eat leaves and larva eat the roots. Both can stunt plant growth and even worse adults may be infected with bacterial wilt.

1.) When I first saw a few of them chewing on a cucumber leaf, I brought out the Pyola spray (same Pyrethrin/Canola oil product as the Monterey Take Down spray that Raybo suggested). It is a very effective knock down insecticide against cucumber beetles. Be careful here especially if you are mixing your own spray from concentrate, cucumber leaves are very sensitive to oils and burn easily. I learned that the hard way. A 1% spray mix works well on cuke beetles, but mist the plant lightly, heavy oil buildup will cause leaf burn and don't spray in the heat of the day, only spray in the early morning or evenings. I only sprayed every 3-5 days or when I suspected there were some beetles hiding.
I also sprayed the soil heavily at the base of the plant. Cucumber beetles lay their eggs in the soil at the base of the plants and Pyrethrin kills bug eggs and larva. I learned that Pyrethrin which breaks down quickly in a matter of a few days in sunlight actually binds tightly with soil and has a half life of 12 days in the ground.

2.) The bug hunt. Every day, early in the morning I would go out to the garden with flat bladed tweezers and a container of soapy water looking for beetles.
They are always there inside the open flowers of cucumbers and squash, sometimes in the growth tips of the cucumber plants. They are easy targets in the morning, cuke beetles are real fast and hard to catch during the day but in the morning they are lethargic and easy to catch. I would collect sometimes 6-12 beetles every day including many mating pairs. (It was the last sex they would ever have.)

3.) The last part of my strategy was an experiment with Neem oil and the results were very surprising. There are many different Neem oil products out there but I decided to use 100% cold pressed Neem Oil. I made a 1% mix of Neem Oil, water and a little coconut oil based liquid dish washing soap and sprayed the plants thoroughly in the evening every 3 days. I also used the same mix as a soil drench. Neem is supposed to be effective as a larvacide also and its active compounds like Azadarachtin are supposed to have a systemic effect. How much effect on a cucumber or squash plant I don't know, but I figured it couldn't hurt.
The results really amazed me as there was no noticeable chewing damage by the beetles, even if they were sitting on the leaves, they weren't feeding on them.

This whole process went on for 12 days and I haven't seen a beetle in a week now, but I am still on the lookout for any more of them and will continue the Neem Oil experiment as it is claimed to be effective against Powdery Mildew, which always hits my cukes and squash every year.

[stonysoilseeds]

i also can attest to carolyns method of using reemay fabric i didnt have the cucumber beetle problem but unfortunayelu after i removed the fabruc my plants were attacked by japanese beetles which i pick off and drown in soapy water