Spray This NOW to STOP Cucumber Beetles and Squash Bugs Like Magic!

What's going on, gardeners? On today's video, I'm going to show you all how to protect your cucumber and squash plants from cucumber beetles and squash bugs. No gimmicks, this actually works. And it's fully organic. This concoction has truly protected all of my plants through what has been a very difficult year, and they have never lasted this long into the season. And on today's video, I'm sharing the secret with you. We are going to use two different products, Spinosad and Surround WP. These two products are going to work together to make the ultimate organic protective spray. Spinosad is a broad spectrum organic insecticide that is effective on a wide range of insect pests, like bagworms, boars, beetles, caterpillars, coddling moths, gypsy moths, loopers, leaf miners, spider mites, tent caterpillars, thrips, and a lot more. I'm reading this directly off the bottle. The way that Spinosad works is through ingestion. It is a natural bacteria that you spray all over your plants and then it must dry on the leaves of the plants. Then these pests must come in and start munching on the leaves after the Spinosad has dried on it. And when they ingest this bacteria, it enters their digestive system and it kills them in about 24 hours. So this is not a contact killer. When we spray it on our plants, it needs to dry and sit on the plants and the pests have to come in and start munching on the leaves. So if you spray this and then you wake up the next day and you see things have munched on the leaves, that is not a bad thing. That is exactly what you want. You also probably won't see the pests dying within a few hours. It takes a day or two, so this has a little bit of lasting power. Don't expect immediate results. This is all according to plan and it is extremely effective. The second product is this, Surround WP. This is not an insecticide. This is a crop protectant. What it is is it is an organic kaolin clay product that has been specially processed and micronized to be sprayed on crops. So what happens is this coats your crops in this film of clay, like a haze, and that makes it very unattractive for the insects to munch on because they get a mouthful of clay. And this becomes more and more effective the more often you spray because you will continually, every week or so, coat your fruits in a coating of this clay or coat the leaves of your plants in a coating of the clay and then the insects, in theory, won't want to munch on them. And I have found this to also be very effective. And as a bonus, if you have very strong sun, this actually works to protect fruits and the leaves of plants from sun scald because it gives a little layer of protection from the UV. But when you combine the two products, that is when the real magic happens because the surround actually acts as an emulsifier and surfactant for the spinosad. So what happens is when you mix them together, the surround emulsifies the mixture better in water so it will stay together and you'll be able to apply it more evenly. And then the kaolin clay sticks to the fruits and it helps the spinosad last longer. One of the big problems we have with organic sprays is they have no staying power. You spray and they're effective for a short while, but then they burn up or they dissipate. When you combine the two, the clay forms that barrier on the fruits and it actually holds the spinosad bacteria in there so it will be effective for a longer period of time as long as you don't get heavy rainfall and it all washes off. So that's why it is such an effective one-two punch when you combine them. And it also becomes a much more effective insecticide when combined together because the crop protectant itself will make the plants less desirable to be chewed or munched on. So that will keep a lot of insect pests away, but those that decide that they wanna munch on it anyway, will get that mouthful of spinosad and then digest it and they'll die within a day or two. So you get enhanced potency. Now for your convenience, I will place direct links to both of these products as well as the sprayer that I'm going to use in this video down in the video description so you can find them. You will notice that Surround WP is a little bit expensive. That's because you get an absolutely enormous bag and it has the freight worked into the cost. I have been working off of the same bag for three years and it's easily going to last the rest of this season into next season. So if the cost looks a little bit high, divide it by three, four or five years and it's actually a deal over the long run because you're buying in bulk. But whatever you do, I strongly advise you do not buy a kaolin clay product that is made for makeup or other things and work that into your sprayer. This product is specifically micronized to be passed through a sprayer so it will not clog it. So if you just go out and you buy kaolin clay to save money, you may destroy your sprayer and I don't think it's worth it. This is specifically made for the task. When spraying your cucumbers, it is incredibly important that you get into the tops of the newly formed cucumber vine because this is where the cucumber beetles often hide and breed. Also check your melon vine tops because melon vines are extremely attractive to the cucumber beetles. You can actually see a couple of them breeding in that male flower right there. They're having a good old time. Squish. For zucchini plants, we especially want to target the ribs and the undersides of the leaves because that is where the squash bugs hang out the most. By coating the ribs of the plant will also give some protection against the squash vine borer as an added bonus. But if you want something for dinner tonight, pick your squashes beforehand because you don't want to eat it right after you spray it. You want to give it about 24 hours before you eat the food. Here's how we make the spray. I'm going to take two gallons of water that I already pre-measured in this five gallon bucket and to that I'm going to add half a cup of Spinosad and also rinse the top off to get all of the rest out. And then I'm going to add four cups of the Surround WP. You can obviously cut this recipe in half if you want to make just one gallon of the spray. You can double this recipe if you want twice as much. But after everything is combined in this bucket, we want to take a paint paddle or some other means of stirring and we want to mix it very, very well until it is fully emulsified. Do not skip this step. It takes a little while to fully emulsify the Surround WP. So take your time and have fun with it. And once everything has been fully combined and dissolved, we are going to pour the mixture into our sprayer. If you're enjoying this video made by a real human being and not AI, would you please consider subscribing to the channel? YouTube dramatically changed their algorithm over the past year to favor shorts content and give that a bigger spotlight than long format content. So between the algorithm changes and all of the AI slop that's being dumped by the truckload onto the platform, it's been really hard for us long format content creators to find new audiences. So doing things like subscribing to the channel and hitting the like button and leaving a comment goes miles to help spread these videos across the platform. So if you enjoy this type of long format content instead of doom scrolling brain rot, I'd really appreciate your support. It is critically important that we wait until the sun is setting to apply this spray on an evening that we know it is not going to rain. Preferably during a dry spell of at least two to three days because in order for this spray to work, it has to fully dry on the leaves and then the insect pests have to chew on the leaves and ingest it. So if there's rain and it washes it off, this spray will not be effective. Furthermore, never apply any sprays at all in the middle of the day or when it is very warm out and the sun is still up because it can annihilate your plants. Any spray, whether it's natural and organic or not, when applied when the sun is up on a warm day can torture plants, destroy them. So you have to wait until the sun is setting. Also, it's best practice to apply insecticides when sun is setting because all your diurnal bugs like bees and dragonflies and ladybugs and other beneficial insects leave the area. Usually it's only the pest bugs that are out at night. So right now it's about seven o'clock, the sun is setting. Now is the time that we want to apply our spray and we don't have rain in the forecast this evening or tomorrow. So now we are going to begin spraying the melons because melons are closely related to cucumbers and share pretty much all of the same pests. And we want to go up and under the leaves of the melons specifically because that is where a lot of pests like to hang out. Pests rarely hang out on top of leaves because they are very vulnerable to not only the hot sun but predatory insects. So we really want to spray under them specifically. We also want to make sure that we coat the fruits like that melon right there. Look at that big melon under there. That's a big guy. Now we're going to go over to our cucumbers and we have a massive haul of cucumbers right there. So we definitely want to protect them. And if you're saying, oh, well that's going to make it unpleasant to eat, this clay spray washes right off. You should be washing your produce regardless in most cases. So the goal is to cover everything in a layer of this clay and especially get the interiors of the flowers right here because that is where the cucumber beetles often hang out. Especially get the tips, the new growth tips of all the melons and cucumbers. Now we'll go over to this vine right here and we will cover all of these leaves, especially the new growth tips where the cucumber beetles tend to hang out because we want to make it so the cucumber beetles do not want to crawl in those protective growth tips and mate. We want to make it so it's very unpleasant for them to exist there. So it gums up their antennae and it never hurts to coat the fruits really well as well for an added layer of protection. And the whole time I'm doing this, I'm trying to jostle the backpack sprayer in order to keep the mixture nice and well mixed, keep that clay from separating. And again, we want to get inside really well and get inside those ribs, really coat them down with clay because not only will that protect against the squash bugs, but that will also help give a layer of protection against the vine bores as well. We're in the second half of June and it's very unusual that the zucchini I planted in early April are still alive and thriving. Usually they only last about six to eight weeks here in my climate. So the fact that they've been going for two and a half months is incredibly, incredibly impressive. Now I'm also spraying down my Zucchino Rafficante and my Seminole pumpkin vines and watermelons because while these are vine bore resistant, they're not necessarily squash bug or cucumber beetle resistant. And I have been seeing cucumber beetles on these plants, unfortunately, which cucumber beetles spread viruses from or the bacterial infections. I can't quite remember, but either way they spread pathogens from plant to plant. So a cucumber beetle infestation, there's actually one right there. Look at that guy. He just gummed up his works, but we'll squash him anyway. So just like that, we saw a cucumber beetle on our squash plants, which is not good, which is why I recommend that people start new squash and cucumber plants every six weeks and plant them in another location. That way you have nice young plants at all times in different stages of growth. And that is called succession planting. And that is the real key to having amazing harvests. And now we're going to get the backsides of my cucumbers and melons that I sprayed from the front. So coat them down really well. And of course, if we wanted to, we could apply the spray to our tomatoes, to our fruit trees, to our eggplant, to anything else that is very pest vulnerable. But at this time I only made enough to treat my cucumber and squash plants. Good news, I spoke too soon. I have a little left and I'm going to use this to put a little clay layer on my apples. I have an amazing apple crop this year, but unfortunately I noticed some leaf footed bugs nesting on some of my apples and digging into them. So I definitely want to try and put some of this crop protectant on them to make them less desirable to those awful, awful insects. This is going to be a record apple crop for me by far, as long as something doesn't come in the middle of the night and steal them. What are you doing, Mr. Bunny? You've been taunting me this entire video. I saw you back there playing with me. With anything left over, I'll cover my Asian pears. And hey, what the heck, why not? Let's spray down our grapes as well. We definitely want to keep them protected. I have a nice little grape crop growing on right here. And now that the spray is starting to dry, you can see just how effective that surround is. It has all of that white clay all over the place and that makes it a lot less desirable to pests. And it will also act as a surfactant to hold that spinosad in place for a long period of time. This is a big reason why I built this amazing roof over my garden because it effectively minimizes the amount I have to spray. The rain can't get under here to wash it off so I get protection longer. But even so, I'm not going to kid myself. These vines are already approaching end of life. They've been in ground for over two months and they're starting to get beaten up from the heat and humidity. So I have more cucumber and zucchini plants that are growing upstairs in my office that have already germinated. I'm already preparing for these to go the way of the dodo bird and I will happily replace these with new vines probably within the next few weeks just to be prepared. And of course that goes double for my squash plants because they are out in the open growing in the weather. So they are a lot more vulnerable. Now, the last point of discussion is how often should you apply this spray? And unfortunately that is all going to come down to weather. Generally speaking, the drier your weather is the less often you're going to have to apply these sprays but with a few caveats. Number one, spinosad is a rare organic insecticide that actually has staying power and lasts a few days. However, it is still an organic insecticide and it still degrades fairly quickly over time. It doesn't last for weeks and months like synthetic chemicals do. And studies have shown that spinosad can stay effective for around three to five days on average if the weather stays dry and nothing washes it off. So if you live in a very dry climate where you don't get any rain, chances are you can leave the spinosad on for something like five to seven days before you have to reapply. But if you live in a wet climate, you may have to reapply it more like every three to five days or whatever your weather allows. Now for the surround kale and clay, you have to spray a few times in order to build up a clay layer. But once that clay layer is on there, if you're not getting rainfall that washes off the clay layer, it will be reasonably effective moving forward. So if you live in places with perfect drought like Southern California where it doesn't rain at all, once you build up that clay layer, it's going to stay effective for a very long period of time. It may eventually turn into dust and blow away so you'll have to reapply to some extent. But in very dry climates, you may be able to minimize spraying to more like every seven to 10 days because while that spinosad won't be effective quite that long, that clay layer will give you enhanced protection for a longer period of time. So you may be able to stretch the window before you have to go and spray more. If you live in a very wet, humid climate like I do, once again, you may find yourself spraying once or twice every single week and you still may lose the battle in the long run if it's raining every single day because you can't maintain a perfect clay layer or a perfect spinosad layer. But all you can do is deal with the weather you have and keep in mind that the more it rains, the more you're going to have to apply, the drier it is, the longer it's going to last and the more effective it's going to stay. And that right there is my organic spray that works to keep the cucumber beetles and the squash bugs off your plants. It's not magic, but it works like magic if you're diligent about it and you maintain that spinosad and clay layer. It will go miles to stopping those pests as well as countless other insects that invade our garden. It is really fantastic and if you put in the work and you keep a spraying routine, you will just be shocked at how much more productivity you will get out of your garden. So everybody, I sure hope you found this video helpful. If you did, please make sure to hit the like button, subscribe to the channel and please ring the notification bell so you're notified when I release more videos like these. I placed direct links to all of the products that I featured in this video for your convenience. For everything else I use in real life in my yard and garden, that is linked in my Amazon storefront in the video description. And while you're down there, check out my website, themillennialgardener.com for all things gardening and custom home design merch if you want to support my channel. Thank you all so much for watching and I hope to see all of you again on the next video. It has been so hot that we have been having to wait all day until we can get some cloudy skies in the afternoon to go for our walk. And it appears that even the gators are a little bit hot. You see that gator over there, right there, Dale? You can see his gator head right there. He doesn't mind. He likes it warm, right? Not us. It's already getting hot and humid. It's gonna be a rough June and July. Every single year with this, we got ourselves a hot dog. At least Dale will cool off the plants, right? We have to water the trees.