Cucumber Beetles and Squash Vine Borers

(Not all my garden is yet in framed, raised beds).

Cucumber beetles and squash vine borers are menaces to cucumber and squash plants.

Right now, my cucumbers are still under a floating row cover, to protect them from

cucumber beetles.  But my zucchini and squash plants are too larger to cover.  The photo

above shows two strategies: first, note the whitish color of the leaves?  This is because I

sprayed the plants with Surround (trademarked,) a fine-milked kaolin clay that is mixed 

with water and sprayed on the entire plant.  Vine borer moths, squash beetles and other bugs

seem to dislike the gritty surface, so it acts as a barrier to their egg laying.  Surround

washes off in the rain and must be reapplied.  The yellow cards hanging from stakes are 

coated with Tangle Trap, similar to the sticky gunk on fly paper.  It comes in a can with a built

in brush lid to ease application.  Cucumber beetles, which transmit wilt (and are more bother-

some to cucumbers than zucchini, but harm it too) are attracted to the color yellow, stick and die.  

When my cucumbers are uncovered, I will put some of these yellow traps in that bed, too.  I 

will monitor the traps to make sure no bees are caught, and, if they are, down will come the

traps.

Happy gardening!