Cucumber Beetles, in spite of the name, will much on any memeber of the vast melon family, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, gourds, as well as many other plants. Neem Oil products appear to have good control rates of these buggers, although due care is necesary when using that since it is a fairly broad spectrum poison. The article attached may be of some help.

Here is a link that might be useful: About Cucumber Beetles

Thank you, kimmsr. I've been devouring gardenweb for the past few months and I've read many of your posts.

Great site. I bookmarked it. I was thinking that they may be congregating in the flower because I do treat my garden with neem oil weekly and the flowers are new and short lived (I started it for the lopers that were devouring my crops on the advice of a friend before I figured out that BT was the way to go with that pest.) So, it occurred to me, "I wonder if they are congregating in the flower because I spray the leaves with neem regularly."

I don't attach it to a hose and spray broadly or anything. I squirt it by hand, as I do BT, about once a week.

I noticed something strange early on in the season, though, that has had me curious about a cucumber plant. I planted about 8 of them, and they all have grown well, except one. It kind of ... petrified ... if that makes sense. It didn't wilt, it didn't turn brown. It only got about 4 decent sized leaves an inch or two across, and then stopped growing, and got hard and crispy (woodlike ... leaves included) but stayed green. When I yanked it, it had very little root structure.

I wonder if that might have been related to a cucumber beetle or larva in the soil (but again, they all look ok as of now ... fingers crossed) or if it was something funky genetic with the plant, which was what I originally attributed it to.

Anyway ... a curiosity.

Thanks again for your time and insight. If damage escalates, there are some other ideas in the article I can escalate to before going insecticide napalm on them. :)

-v