If you are having infestations of pests, there is a lack of beneficial insects to balence out(eat) the pests. The only true solution would be to bring more balence to your ecosystem. Start doing things more helpful to the soil, compost, compost tea, mulch, releasing lady bugs, etc. There has to be a reason for these beneficial insects not coming to your garden. Do you spray any poisons on your garden, anything at all? What are your fertilzing with? How often do you water? Are you sorrounded by concrete and have no "wild" woodlands and habitat for the beneficial insects? I live right on top the woods, so the ecosystem is already rich here. Sometimes it just takes a lot of work, dedication and TLC. The best thing i could tell you is, i would stop using any poisons and start doing things more "organic", aka start making your own compost, keep your garden mulched, create a good havitat for the beneficial insects to encourage them to fight off the pests.

Thank you for your reply!

I don't use any chemicals, sprays or fertilizer, and I water regularly but not too much. All the soil amendments that I use are organic. I do live in the city so there is not much "wildlife" around. My soil has lots of earthworms and we do have a ton of lady bugs already. These were things that I thought signaled a healthy soil. I have talked to my local plant nursery and they did not seem to offer any helpful suggestions other than handpicking the insects...

I try to nip the buggers in the bud by learning their habits. For example when it comes to Colorado Potato beetles, I am watching for the first adults to appear. They will first appear on early volunteers from last years crop....zap!

For Japanese beetles I relied on more than one thing. In 2003 I had hordes of them. I estimated that I trapped and killed 270,000 of them. I did use a bit of Milky spore, trapped gobs, and even killed more by unmentionable methods to squeaky organics. Last year I killed 24 by hand. The year before 8. The year before that 5.
For cucumber beetles I watch for the first flight by overwintering adults. This happens here in mid May. They will attack newly emerged cucurbits and lay their eggs around those roots so that a month later, you have a swarm of them. I try to nip them in the bud at that first group. Any ones who arrive in the second set are hard to kill without something like Sevin. A bit of Sevin sprayed on top of some large leaves at sundown does wonders.

Tomato horn worms seem to come and go around here. I have not seen any lately. I would just be watching and pick any off. If the worms have a lot of white eggs on them, pick the worms off and place them alive away from the garden...so the parasites will hatch out.

Hornworms I have the most experience with and it seems the best course of action is to inspect the plants every day and pluck off any you find. They can usually be found during the day.

There are no Japanese beetles in my area and I have just begun noticing cucumber beetles within the last year or so. For your zone for the cucumbers, you can succession plant. When you start new ones, I would try covering with row cover until they start to flower, when the cover needs to be taken off.

For strawberries, I would try experimenting with different types and pay attention to when the beetles show up. Maybe go for June bearers that set the crop all at once. Once the crop sets, you can cover it with row cover to protect it until the fruit is ripe.

For some pests, it may be worth it to look at targeted controls even if it includes a limited application of pesticides. I would carefully research which ones are available and maybe only apply once or twice. This limited amount be all that is necessary and still be much less than what is used in conventional farming. There is a reason why organic produce is so much more expensive, it is harder to grow which is also the reason why so many pesticides were developed in the first place, because insects can wipe so much out very quickly.

How about some sort of row covers before they come to get you? Do a search and see what you come up with. Nancy

Row covers.... As far as the original poster is concerned, my strawberries are done by the time Japanese Beetles show up...late June. Perhaps they are everbearers in this case. Still it would be a lot of time covering them up for light harvests.

I don't think you would want to cover cukes during pollination...for normal varietIies.

Tomatoes...it would be hard to cover very many 7 foot plants.

Bt dust works fine on all caterpillars, hornworms included.

Apply beneficial nematodes and plant dill, fennel, and other flowers that attract pollinators and other beneficial insects. You can probably google to get a good list of other flowers. An organic garden needs to have a healthy ecology to work. It shouldn't be a matter of just using organic sprays. With the right beneficial insects, you'd have your hornworms dying from eggs hatched in their bodies laid by beneficial insects.

I would agree the problem is a lack of plant/crop diversity. If the crops are in containers it's especially problematic.

You might try planting cucumbers at a different time. I usually put mine in late. I like seed catalogs like Johnny's - a quick look at cucumbers suggests Diva isn't bothered by cucumber beetles as much as other varieties. Look for help in catalog descriptions.

Last year I did not have hornworms. I thought I saw some poop but no worms. I don't know if something was getting the hornworms at night. I lot a lot of tomatoes to disease due to rain but the ones in my high tunnel (with sides rolled up) were healthy. Normally I go on hornworm patrol late in the day looking for evidence, usually chewed leaves. I usually don't find them until they are on top of the plants and huge. In the morning I check for squash bugs and potato beetle eggs.

I have left a weedy strip near the veggie garden to hopefully promote beneficials. I have flowers and shrubs to attract birds. I hope the swallows that sit on my pea trellis (and poop) are also eating bad bugs.

Good luck! I would try different varieties this year that might be more resistant.

Hm, I live inside a city as well (Baltimore to be exact) and it will be my first time urban gardening. I was thinking of getting a mason bee lodge to coax bees. Anything else you all can think of? Should I get some sort of bird feeder? Anything else I can buy to coax a nice ecosystem?

I just bought my house and there was a previous garden in the patio yard but I don't know how well it was taken care of before I bought the house so I don't know how well it's ecosystem is.