If you understand how DE works, what effect it has on bugs, especially leaf sucking flying insects then you have your answer. For it to work the insect in question must crawl through it. It is listed as effective only on crawling insects.

Diatomaceous earth causes insects to
dry out and die by absorbing the oils and fats from the cuticle of the
insect's exoskeleton. Its sharp edges are abrasive, speeding up the
process. It remains effective as long as it is kept dry and undisturbed.

In other words it must come into direct contact with the insect's body, it has to be placed where the insect will come into direct contact with it - that means thickly coating the leaves for the insects in question. And the longer it is in contact with the insect body the faster it works but it is still a slow acting pesticide.

Dave

Works for me on leaf footed bugs, which some call squash bugs. But you have to spread it uniformly. Piles and clumps of it won't work. One brilliant spreading method is to mist your plants, and then grab a handful of DE and hold it in front of a shop vac that is blowing. POOF! Big cloud covers the whole plant. It sticks where it is wet, but dries quickly.

I read somewhere about mixing some with water and then spraying it on your plants anyone tried this? It didn’t sound like it would work to me but the person said it did

Lots of people say that spraying a slurry works. But in my mind, it's just another sprayer to mess up. Now, throwing a handful of DE into a sprayer with fungicide maybe is a way of killing two birds with one stone.

For slurring what mixture, what I read seemed like way way to little. I am finding the cucbeetles all over. On potatoes, bolting cilantro, ironically none on cuc plants yet! Cuc plants are pretty small though, 4 leaves and 3" tall.

Finding cuc beetles on cilantro, potatoes, squash, beans, lettuce, kale and more.

Still lots of cuc beetles far far far to much growth to hand pick. I have a couple hundred feet of thick vines. Diatomaceous earth is not helping much.

How did you apply it? Is your foliage really covered with it? The foliage should have a light white dusty appearance.

I used a lot but did not get every inch would take an hour. I believe they do not realize it hurts them so do not hesitate to crawl through it. I hit under neath good in likely hiding places. I think it helps but more arrive hourly so it is hard to tell. Some do seem lethargic even midday - leading me to believe they are dying. Still I can always find some - always.

Any progress with the DE vs. leaf-footed bugs?

Hard to tell, TONS of growth checking is nearly impossible and would take hours. For sure I am not seeing a lot. Winter was cold and it might have killed off some. I also was really diligent and thought I killed every one I saw early. I did find eggs twice - again not even bothering to check now to much work - and from past years hand picking was definitely not effective.

I believe it is making a difference. Hard to say yet.

Thanks.

some of my garden.

After a good inspection yesterday I definitely think the DE is working. Again hard to tell but this year seems far better then last year. Also could be growth is way ahead and they have not shown up in force yet.

Keep it dry. It seems to have got rid of the beetles on my cucumbers, pumpkins, summer squash and acorn squash. Only thing that seems to work. Put it on when the plants won't get wet for a few days. I use a an old spice container with holes and sift/sprinkle it all over the plant.

Lets here some more. I can ALWAYS find cuc beetles. It is like hundreds are arriving daily so 7 dust works but new ones arrive. Same for DE. It is not out of control but I can find dozens with ease.

Yes I realize I cannot control them just seems so weird how they never gone. And it makes me nervous especially for my cucumbers. I have had DE work pretty good on Japanese beetlesif spread thoroughly I find them dried up in a few days. And I definitely think is working on squash bugs and cucumber beetles.

I think you have mentioned before that you have a lot of nearby trees/woods? Same here and that is their winter stomping/hibernating territory. So for those of us with lots of woods they likely will never be gone.

But the worst that can happen is you lose a couple of plants and have to start some new ones. That is the case with all of us. Still plenty of time.

Dave

Yes I am surrounded on three sides by woods. Also I leave a ton of debris in my garden each winner. I would most plants just die and lay there and I throw in Pineneedles for Mulch. It’s really bad I may quit it up this year and see how much it helps. However the more I think about it the DE It’s definitely working good.

My biggest fear is my cucumbers despite successive planting handpicking and sevin dust every year they die before producing cucumbers or I get very few.

You basically ask the same question in two separate threads. I answered you in the other one. Probably should have answered it here.

I saw it thanks!

Also for others. I am handpicking bugs 10x LESS and having least issues in years so DE is definitely working IMO.

Game over Cuc beetles and squash bugs win again............

Found tons of cuc beetles today - everywhere. I just dusted my plants with several pounds of DE yesterday since it had rained. Many still had it. Also found a new hatchling of squash bugs. Got them all but still.

Also lost an entire cuc plant today to what is sure to be from cuc beetles. That plant was dusted with sevin 3 times and never every without a good coating of DE.

GGGGRRRRR

So, on Sunday you think it's working, and then today you decide that it isn't? What is your conclusion here? I don't think anyone is guaranteeing that DE works completely against these bugs. If you hadn't dusted with DE, it might have been loads worse.

I agree it would have been worse and I did hand pick a lot but not nearly as much as before. My cuc plants will fall victim in the next couple weeks and the squash bugs will get bad fast. I did think I was doing better - and likely I was - but I still failed.

I sincerely hoped it would be ok but I just delayed the devastation by a week or two at best. Better then nothing but far from success.

Today was an eye opener. Again DE etc helped but far from solved problem.

TTT I am trying again this year. Lets here how it has worked from other people? I found a lot of cucumber beetles on the same squash so I hit it with 7 dust today. It's going to be hard to tell if the DE works.

I feel your pain having my cucumbers devastated a couple of years ago. They ate the flowers and stopped any new fruit from developing. Old cukes were badly eaten/damaged.

Last year, I grew my cukes under Reemay which was a massive PITA having to untuck and careful re-tuck them. I simply gave up checking them in the end.

This year I am trying again, having read that nasturtiums are supposed to repel the beetles, I attempted to grow some from seed, but one seed germinated. Better than nothing I suppose so I have planted it. The other (important) think that I read was to plant late to fool the beetles into thinking there's nothing here worth eating! I planted out 4 cuke seedlings on June 15th, so we shall see...…..

Linda

I planted some nasturtiums this year also from seed reading that they help with alphids I planted some in with my tomato plants and some in a pot near my cucumbers. I hope they do what I read and help to keep the damaging insect population down a bit. I only have a few plants of a few different fruits and veggies but I still want protection. I have never tried the DE to help. Does it help with earwigs. I have them awful eating flowers in the pots of flowers.