The garden is in and the bugs are already back.

[Vinca]

What do you use for bug repellant that actually works? The current nuisance is a cucumber beetle going after my ground cherries. I bought a spray billed as safe for organic gardening, but I prefer something powdery for leafy things like cukes and squash. Has anyone discovered a safe powdery remedy?

[rampartc]

1. sevin dust

get the little pump duster to go with it.

[Vinca]

2. Thanks. I had forgotten about that and I didn't see it at the garden store.

I'll have to look around. I'm trying a weird method of keeping slugs away from my kale this year. Apparently slugs hate copper so a gardener suggested surrounding each plant with copper pennies stuck in the ground. Supposedly they won't crawl over them. We'll see. Either way, a hundred years from now some gardener is going to think they hit a treasure trove. LOL.

[Nay]

3. I've heard that slugs love beer and some gardeners sink a few shallow bowls or

jar lids in the dirt and fill them with beer. The slugs go in and drown. I have never tried that myself, though.

[Vinca]

5. Last year I put a little yeast and sugar in water and got it fermenting, then put it in paper cups

buried in the ground in the kale patch. It worked at catching slugs, but it was kind of gross to clean up. I hope the pennies work.

[handmade34]

4. possibly a more organic effective insecticide

is diatomaceous earth... sevin is toxic bad for the earth and our bodies

I use dried coffee grounds to keep slugs away from plants

[Vinca]

6. I'm looking for something powdery to sprinkle on leaves of things like cucumber and

squash plants to keep beetles away. That's how the sevin came up. Any ideas? I'd love to come up with a home remedy of some kind. I did find a spray solution I might try that was a mixture of castile soap, water, hot pepper, garlic and peppermint oil.

[NJCher]

7. any powder--even flour

will work.

Please do not use Sevin. An easy Google search: "It is not a “natural” or “organic” garden chemical. It is dangerous. It is toxic. Eating food treated with Sevin Dust or Sevin liquid will cause low levels of poisoning (see above) and in higher doses *will* cause damage and illness to the human body."

Furthermore, Sevin is made by Bayer. Detestable corporation.

For powdery mildew on cucumbers, use The Green Cure. Again, easy Google search: "GreenCure® is a potassium bicarbonate-based fungicide that has been proven to cure and prevent powdery mildew, blackspot, downy mildew, blights, molds and other plant diseases. GreenCure® is as effective or better than competitive products, can be more economical and best of all, it's kinder to you and the environment."

Green Cure has their own web site where you can learn about an organic means of controlling powdery mildew.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. Almost all insecticides kill all insects, including pollinators. Sevin is very bad.

Here's some information that might help: https://extension.umn.edu/yard-and-garden-insects/cucumber-beetles