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cucumber beetle trap installed above a plant

How to Make a Cucumber Beetle Trap

This cucumber beetle trap attracts beetles away from your cucumber plant and then traps them with a sticky surface so they won't hurt your plant again.

Ingredients
  

  • Yellow Plastic Cups (or plastic containers painted yellow)
  • Tanglefoot Insect Barrier (or similar sticky coating for traps)
  • 1 tsp Cloves
  • 1/2 cup Oil (vegetable or olive)
  • Cotton Balls
  • Hole Punch
  • Wooden popsicle stick or metal paint scraper
  • Twist Ties
  • Stakes (if your cucumber does not have a trellis)

Instructions
 

  • First, make your clove oil. Gently toast the cloves on medium heat in an empty saucepan for about 5 minutes or until their scent is noticeable. Add the oil and gently simmer for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow the cloves to infuse the oil for a day or two. Alternatively, you can buy clove essential oil.
  • Add your cotton balls (as many as you are making traps) to the clove oil and allow them to soak up the infused oil till they are coated (if you are using essential oil you only need a few drops on your cotton balls)
  • Using a popsicle stick or scraper, put a smear of Tanglefoot on the bottom of your yellow plastic cup then drop the oiled cotton ball down into the cup where the stickiness will hold it in place.
  • Use your hole punch to punch 2 holes in the cup about 1/2 inch apart from each other parallel to the top lip of the cup.
  • Now, use the stick or scraper to paint the cup with Tanglefoot all around the inside (and outside if you want to cover all of your bases).
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!