Attack of the Beetles III

As with recent wars elsewhere, my struggle against the beetles is ongoing, progress has been made, it wouldn't make sense to quit now, and I might have declared victory a bit too soon (see parts I and II).

Enemy #1: Flea beetle
Status: new insurgents!
The tomatoes had outgrown the flea beetle damage and were/are taking off. Also, the upside-down tomato plants had completely avoided the first wave of flea beetles that were attacking all my in-ground plants (guess they couldn't jump that high - ha! outwitted you, didn't I, you little f*ers!) Okay, well, not so fast there, J... perhaps I outwitted them the first time, with help from some diatomaceous earth, but.... they're back! With reinforcements! They're all over my in-ground tomatoes. The beetles have also managed to make it up to my upside-down tomatoes, I assume by hopping up all the squash leaves underneath both plants. You're welcome.
Strategy: Management. Time for some more DE.

Enemy #2: Cucumber beetle
Status: buzzing around but are basically has-beens. However, I fear late-season comeback.
In my last report from the front lines, I gave up on sprays and was resorting to physical blockage involving walls of water with cheesecloth over the top, and row covers. The wall arrangement worked very well until the plants were too big to fit inside. At that point, I fearfully took off the walls/cloth and hoped for the best. The squash won: thankfully, squash is such a fast, strong grower that the beetles couldn't do measurable damage to the plants anymore.

However, the cucumber plants were under heavier attack, suffered more damage before I re-covered them, and probably continued to get eaten after I was forced to uncover them because they were getting too big, too, for the wall/cloth contraption. The covers allowed both plants to recover a bit and put on new growth, which I think was key to their survival. They are survivors! As shown in the last post, I harvested 2 lovely cucumbers from my Marketmore plant this week. Still no Armenian yard-longs, but I think I saw some babies on there a few days ago.
Lessons Learned:
1)cuc beetles can do terrible damage to really small plants. Physical covers like walls of water, cheesecloth or row cover material are the only good way to protect small plants from them. Cover your cucumber, melon or squash plant until it is flowering and/or can't fit under the cover anymore.
2)I am sure pyrethrin sprays have some efficacy but just aren't worth the cost, effort and potential to kill beneficial insects.
Strategy: feeling sense of impending doom about late-season resurgence of cuc beetle damage, not sure what to do! Come on, cucumbers! Produce! Hurry!

Attack of the Beetles Part II

Enemy #1: Flea Beetles
Battle outcome: Victory!
Recap:
1)I found out flea beetles rarely actually kill the tomato (but they do destroy most lower leaves)
2)I transplanted my tomatoes in the garden after they were a bit bigger (>=10 in?) so even though they had fewer leaves after transplanting (since I buried the stems for stronger root system), I guess they had enough size and reserves to persevere through the flea beetle stress.
3)Diatomaceous earth! This is the best stuff ever! I had read that DE - a powder made of the fossilized shells of diatoms, super cool little phytoplankton of whom I've long been a fan - was good for flea beetle control; it's absorptive properties dehydrate them. Just when I was sitting in my garden, thinking to myself, "I really wish I had some diatomaceous earth!" but not wanting to go buy a big bag for a just a few sprinkles of it, a guy walked up with a sifter of diatomaceous earth, introduced himself, and let me use some. I love the community gardens! So I sifted some on the tomatoes that were having problems and there has been very little flea beetle damage since.

Enemy #2: Striped Cucumber Beetle
Battle outcome: ongoing, looking at possible shameful defeat
Recap:
1) They keep breeding! A first generation emerges from overwintering in the soil, has the gall to mate all over my tomatillo, lay eggs, and then develop again in the soil, come out, breed... I think I'm seeing the second generation now. I've noticed a few smaller beetles, who look exactly like the adults except their black stripes are backed by gray, not yellow - I'm guessing these might be the youngins??
2)There's no good leave-on organic control for cuc beetles that I can find... There are some organic options, but they only work on contact with the beetles, meaning you can only possibly get the ones you spray directly. The other 23.9 hours of the day, they're all living the hedonistic beetle life on my plants.
I tried pyrethrin, (ex: Safer insecticidal spray) an insecticide derived from the crysanthemum family. It's certified organic, and usually mixed with an insecticidal soap. When I spray individual beetles, I've seen about 50% instant knock-down. But I'm not sure if I'm killing them or just temporarily inconveniencing them, giving them a renewed resolve to survive and breed more...
3)They really like smaller plants, especially cucumbers (surprise). They are not doing too much damage to my tomatillo anymore. It's pretty big, and apparently it was not their first choice in dining. I had been protecting the five-star meals inside walls of water and since I've taken off the walls, it's been an feeding frenzy. They eat the flowers and new shoots, and they very well might kill one of my cucumber plants.
4) I'm going back to physical blockage. I put the most victimized cucumber plant back in a wall of water with some cheesecloth over the top (so there's more room within the wall but the beetles are still blocked), as shown in the pic (of my patty pan squash they are also attacking) The other cucumber and melon are too big to fit within a wall of water anymore, so I might get some of the rowcover material and make a tent for them. It's their only hope.

Attack of the Beetles!!!!

I went out of town for 6 days. 6 days! Everything was fine when I left... I covered most plants with walls of water and the raised beds with black plastic mulch (known in lay terms as cut up trash bags :).

I came back from out of town to flea beetles and cucumber beetles attacking the plants that weren't protected by walls of water. They must have hatched/matured in the 6 days I was gone! There were 2 tomatoes (my Moonglow heirloom, no!!!), a tomatillo, and a few peppers uncovered. The tomatoes and tomatillo were getting devoured!

Flea beetles are very little black bugs that leave tiny buckshot holes in leaves. They also jump like fleas. You can see a couple on the rightmost leaf in the pic.

(Striped) cucumber beetles are a bit bigger, yellow with distinct black stripes (The stock pic shows both spotted and striped). They eat big holes through leaves, mate all over my tomatillo, and leave clumps of orange eggs on the undersides of leaves. The worst part is that they spread bacterial wilt, which can kill the whole cucumber or squash plant. I've only noticed them on the tomatillo so far (since all my squash are in a walls of water teepees) but this could be a bad situation since 1/3 to 1/2 of my garden is curcurbits of various kinds.

The community gardens are all organic, so no killing them with technology (can I blind them with science?) .... but there's several organic options available. I'll post soon what works for me.