Once they are in you've had it. Preventative spraying weekly with BT is the best control, but you must use a sprayer with a bent-neck at the wand tip as it is vital that you spray BOTH sides of the leaves.

bag 'em.

http://centralfloridagarden.blogspot.com/search?q=pickleworms

Does Home Depot sell BT? I've never used it before.

Thanks for the bagging tip. I may give it a try.

Is the pin hold the main tell tale sign of entry into the cuke? I am going to examine the plants today to see how bad things are. It was dusk last night so I couldn't review the plants effectively.

I left the infected cuke out for possums, raccoon or whatever to eat. Go figure -- it's still laying there on the ground. Nothing ate it so into the garbage today.

Does Home Depot sell BT?

Yes, this is what you want. Make sure you spray the NEW GROWTH / BUDS well, not just both sides of the leaves.

the moths, which are nocturnal, visit every night, led to the plants by pheromones from previous visits. once they've found you cuke patch, they'll visit often. that's why it's essential to bag daily, in the evening, after the flowers have been pollinated. make sure you have lots of bee-attracting flowers in the area (agastache and african blue basil... the latter blooms most heavily in the winter/spring and the former throughout the summer.)

you can do the paintbrush thing every night before bagging, too. i kept one hanging next to my plants. dip in the male, dip in the female.

Aah! Okay...Thuricide! I never knew that was also referred to as BT. I may already have some in the garage. Can I spray my tomatoes as well? The leaves have lots of leaf miner activity - probably baby horn worms.

The cuke plant is NOT looking too hot right now...it may be too late.

Now that you mention it, I have seen a lot of moths flitting around my cuke plants.

A different issue, due to the warm weather, all my lettuce has bolted to flower. Is it still edible or not?

As always, thanks for the advice and help I.M.A. and TomNCath!

Put that rotten cuke as far away from the garden or the possums and rats will make your garden their new midnight snack oasis

bolted lettuce is, imo, too bitter to eat. let some of it go to seed, tho. i save seed, and, for whatever reason, the same strains appear year after year.

you should sow salad greens every couple of weeks. as long as the nights get cool, and they don't get too much sun, salad greens will continue to produce at least through mid-spring.

Thanks, I.M.A.! I'll cut it down tomorrow and look to start over with the lettuce.