Cucumber beetles lovin' on my plants!

Does anyone have any tips about how to organically deal with Cucumber beetles? I released baby mantids earlier in May and have ordered a beetle trap and nematodes to kill the larvae. Any other good suggestions? Do trap plants really work? I would have tried planting blue hubbard as a trap crop, but I am concerned about cross pollination between them and my heirloom candy roaster squash. Also, do cucumber beetles like beans? Something is eating the heck out of them, too.

I just got the traps in the mail and set them up. It's been 30 minutes and there are already cucumber beetles on them.

Wow, emcars, what's the trap is like? I'm glad to learn that there are traps specifically for them. Those are nasty beetles! They eat any thing tender I believe. They rack havoc on my flower such as Angel trumpets as well.

The traps are just hanging sticky traps that have "bait" hanging in the middle of them. There are a few flys stuck to them, too, but mostly cucumber beetles. Time will tell how well they actually work and if they really do attract cucumber beetles more than other insects. I am just desparate. My candy roaster squash went from beautiful to full of holes with the beetles all over them in just a few days. I can't wait to get my nematodes :) My beans, zucchini, melons, and cukes are all suffering, too. It seems as though the butternut is somewhat resistant to the little buggers. It looks better than all of other vining plants! I will take a picture of one of the traps and post it in the morning.

Did you get your nematodes, emcars? What exactly did you order?

I've been looking into ordering some myself, for my pumpkin patch (it's being very tentatively munched on by SOMETHING, fortunately not too much damage yet).

Well, the sticky traps are kinda lame. There are a lot of other bugs on them. Some cucumber beetles are on it, but, eh. Got my nematodes yesterday and applied them today! I am really hoping that they will make a large impact on the cuke beetle population. They like my candy roaster squash among other things. I grew it all from seed and invested in some nice heirloom seeds of which I have few. We'll see!
JessJess- the nematodes are Grub-Away Beneficial Nematodes (Heterorhabditis bacteriophora) from Garden's Alive. I ordered them off of the website and I really hope they work. The beetles are setting in on my zucchini now. They work on insects that make live part of their life in the soil. I had released praying mantises, but we had a cold snap in may and I haven't seen any of them outside.

hi emcars, here is the pic. of the luffa sponge I've mentioned in our Squash War thread. It's really handy, it's tough enough to get sticky stuff off our pots and pans, but gently enough it won't damage them.

I just simply left the over ripe fruit on the vine, take it down at the end of the growing season, let it air dry. Then peel off the out the skin, by then it will be brittle and easy to remove. I then will collect the seeds, though, I haven't tried to grow the home made seeds, I must have lost them some where.

Just a heads up that the cucumber beetle larva (grubs) eat the roots of many plants so if they aren't controlled they will do further damage. I have had experience with this....one season I could not figure out why my spinach plants could be lifted off the ground. They no longer had roots bc of the cuke beetle grubs.