Here is an excerpt from the TOTW:
How to ‘Paint’ Squash Bug Eggs:

"Make a solution of 3 parts canola oil- to 1 part dish liquid; make a small amount, a little goes a long way. Using a small brush ‘paint’ this solution on the eggs while they are still attached to the leaves. The eggs can be found attached to the cucurbit leaves. Look closely to the undersides of the leaves, which is their favorite place to lay them. This solution does a small amount of damage to the leaves but he was damaging more with other methods, such as cutting the piece of leaf out with the eggs attached or smashing the eggs on the leaves. The eggs are round and metallic in appearance with a coppery color. The adult squash bugs are brown with a ‘shield’ shape back and nymphs are whitish gray with black legs. Keeping the eggs from hatching has paid off in a BIG way; the squash bug numbers are much lower this year as opposed to other years.

Cucumber beetles are yellow with black stripes or spots and they also multiply rapidly. They lay eggs in the soil and the larvae eat the roots of plants and the adults carry diseases that can kill cucurbits rapidly along with eating different parts of the plants. This week we lost 5 cucurbit plants that were growing well one day and the next day were wilted and died. When I pulled the plants out there weren’t many roots so I assume the larvae were doing their dirty work.

Our Newest Weapon:

Our handheld vacuum (ours is a DustBuster) has become the newest weapon in the warfare on the cucumber beetles. When we go out to the gardens in the morning the cucurbit blossoms are full of cucumber beetles that are sitting ducks. But we can’t spray them with Insecticidal Soap to kill them because the bees are also out in full force. So John tried our DustBuster with a small attachment that came with it and viola!! It works like a charm. We estimate he got over 1,000 beetles in two days. At this rate we will finally start putting a dent in their population.

Bees sometimes get sucked up in the vacuum along with the beetles so he empties the DustBuster on cement and stomps on the beetles as fast as he can. The bees fly away when he opens the vacuum up. You could also try emptying the vacuum into a bucket of soapy water; hopefully the bees will fly away before they end up in the bucket."

Sherry, I realize this sounds labor intensive but it does keep your food and soil from having chemicals sprayed all over it. Sevin works good at first but it is non-selective and will kill the good bugs too. When you kill the good bugs there are no predators around to eat the bad bugs when they return. And they will return. Sevin also contains chemicals that I am sure you don't really want to be eating.

An organic product that you can use on vegetables and not worry about the chemicals is called Pyola from Garden's Alive. It will help control the problem but you have to be diligent in using it. Unlike Sevin, Pyola doesn't have a residual effect so you need to use it more often, which can be a drawback. Many organic pest controls have this characteristic, but they are better for you healthwise. You can find a link to their web site by clicking on 'Market Place' found on our 'Home' page, left side buttons.

Best Wishes in the "Bug Wars"
Diane