SVB idea

mathfed · June 13, 2007

I saw a SVB moth fluttering around my zucchini yesterday afternoon. I only found one egg on the underside of one of the stems and immediately took it off.

I've been thinking of an idea of how to kill the grubs that are inside squash vines without actually slitting the vine open. I think I got all of the eggs on my plant, but it is likely I will have to deal with these buggers since I'm not sitting outside by my plants all day and night. I am curious if people think this idea would work. Since squash vines (at least zucchini vines) are a bit translucent, it seems possible that one could see the grubs in the vines by doing the following. Go out to the squash plant at night. Take a flashlight and move the light along the underside of the vine/stem. Since some light can pass through the stem, it seems like there would be a darkish spot where a grub is. So, take a needle and impale the grub through the vine (stab throught the dark spot). This seems like it would kill the grub and would be less drastic than splitting the vine open to get at the little bugger. Do you think this would work?

June 13, 2007	#1
mathfed Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Carlsbad, NM Posts: 38	SVB idea I saw a SVB moth fluttering around my zucchini yesterday afternoon. I only found one egg on the underside of one of the stems and immediately took it off. I've been thinking of an idea of how to kill the grubs that are inside squash vines without actually slitting the vine open. I think I got all of the eggs on my plant, but it is likely I will have to deal with these buggers since I'm not sitting outside by my plants all day and night. I am curious if people think this idea would work. Since squash vines (at least zucchini vines) are a bit translucent, it seems possible that one could see the grubs in the vines by doing the following. Go out to the squash plant at night. Take a flashlight and move the light along the underside of the vine/stem. Since some light can pass through the stem, it seems like there would be a darkish spot where a grub is. So, take a needle and impale the grub through the vine (stab throught the dark spot). This seems like it would kill the grub and would be less drastic than splitting the vine open to get at the little bugger. Do you think this would work?