I went insane last year with thousands of cucumber beetles - they particularly liked a weed that grew near my garden but also ate my cukes and potatoes. The cukes all got the wilt and died as did the squash. So I went to war. Sprayed the entire area of the garden and 100 feet around the edges with beneficial nematodes that supposedly kill the over wintering cucumber beetles. Also used milky spore to kill the japanese beetles. So far so good this year - only an occasional cucumber beetle - maybe 5 that I've picked off the potatoes. I sprayed the potatoes with soap and pyrethrin. I've covered the Diva Cucumbers with agribon as well. Have seen only a single japanese beetle. It should be time for the second generation of cucumber beetles and we'll see what happens. I'm waiting for the Mexican Bean beetles - They haven't arrived yet but will use microscopic wasps which worked well the past two seasons.

We have been fighting a terrible infestation of cat's claw for a year in an old house we bought in downtown Orlando. The house was surrounded on three sides by 12 ft tall legustrum, all covered in cat's claw. Most of that legustrum could not be saved, as the cat's claw had choked it and the wood had begun to rot. We have had to cut down the trees and dig out the bulbs of the cat's claw root. No chemical has worked at all, not brush killer or Round Up or anything else. Aside from laboriously digging out the bulbs by hand, the only thing that has worked is SALT. Yes, salt. We have entire patches of yard that are now nothing but dirt after we cut down legustrum, dug out bulbs, then put down bags of pool salt. Finally, we covered those patches with heavy duty weed barrier. We will wait a little longer and then eventually plant some salt tolerant plants (sea grape for one) there. I know this sounds dramatic, but nothing worked and there was no sense trying to save what was dead or plant something new before we had eradicated the vine. There are some legustrum that were not totally dead. In those cases, we've just kept the vines clipped down to the ground or pull them out. The key is to deprive them of sunlight so that the bulbs weaken. Every week when my husband weed eats the yard, he is sure to weed eat the vines around the legustrum. We don't bother with any of the chemicals any more; they are bad for us and do absolutely nothing to the vine. All the advice we have received from plant people is to just keep pulling and deprive the bulbs of sunlight, so that is what we are doing. These cat's claw vines are the bane of my existence. We came here from Ohio a year ago and I had never seen anything like this before! Liz

thank you both for your advice greatly appreciated.i am going to try jet spraying with water.rite now in south florida it is dry and we are about to get a cold snap here on wed so im a bit nervous of some of my babies.so it is not very humid rite now.i used to spray systemic for scales but thee product i used was recalled and i havent sprayed in like 5 months now i have spider mites.i spray most of the vines i have growing on my fence but leave some for the caterpillars.i have 14 or so growing in pots next to each other which i havent sprayed since ive had them but found spider mites on them so gotta take care of it...another question...i have passiflora nelsonii about to bloom i suspect 2morow seeing though the cover over it, like triloba, has finally stared to split open and i can see the bud...now weather predicts it is supposed to be like 37 on tues nite is the cold going to effect the bloom...it should get about 39 if they say 37 we are closer to the ocean...hopefully it opens and ill post a picture ...well thank u for the advice once again...have many more questions and pictures to post....

Cut off what dies on the plant. Keep it well watered, put your finger in the pot to see if it is dry before watering it. Water it til the water comes out of the bottom of the pot. Leave it alone. You are killing it with everything you are spraying on it. It might live, or not, but next time, on any plant, remember, just spray a little dish soap and water on the top and bottom of the leaves ONCE a day til you don't see them anymore. Don't panic. Good Luck.