Here in our Intervale display gardens the Insect Pop Up Nets have been a big success. The cucumber beetles have been shut out.

Two cucumber trellises in a raised bed, covered with a tall Insect Pop Up Net. Between the two rows of cucumber plants is a row of fernleaf dill (the kind of dill that’s grown for its foliage rather than its seedheads). The net will come off as soon as the plants begin to flower. By then, I hope, most of the beetles will have come and gone, and the plants will be relatively safe from damage.

The striped cucumber beetle and typical damage to a cucumber plant’s foliage.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about growing cucumbers under an Insect Pop Up Net to protect against cucumber beetles. The jury is still out for the planting at home (the netting kept out the cucumber beetles but not the slugs). Here in our Intervale display gardens the Insect Pop Up Nets have been a big success.

Without protection, the cucumber plants in the rest of the garden have been under attack for weeks; about half of them died and the others are stunted and struggling.

Compare that with the lush plants that are thriving under the tall Insect Pop Up Net.

Have you tried these Pop Up Nets?

Director of Gardening, Gardener’s Supply