"Paul M. Cook" wrote in
:

Well it looks like my little garden is under full scale onslaught. I
must have just had dumb luck last year. So now my young cucumber
leaves are heavily damaged. Last night they were fine, this morning
they look like a doily. The damage is pretty extensive. What insect
did this? I could see no slug trails anywhere. Can the plants
survive with about 50% leaf area destroyed? I noticed a few of my
pepper plants have leaves with large holes in them that were also not
there yesterday. I don't see the slugs getting to those leaves so it
must be something else.




Are you sure the damage happened over night? Cucumber beatles will make the
leaves look like doilys, and they can quickly devestate cucumbers, beans,
etc. I've had egg clusters hatch and destroy plants within hours. By the
time I got out of bed in the morning to check the plants, it was too late.
They can recover from 50% leaf destruction, but it will set them back. If
the plants are very young, I'd reseed and try again. Otherwise, nurse them
the best you can.

I use neem to control the cucumber beetles. They seem to not like the smell
and will stay from them for almost a week.