please tell me there is an organic pesticide for squash vine bore

[Mike723]

Perhaps we could wrap the stems in a synthetic material similar to cheese cloth? Something like the mesh used for sheetrock taping .. Over lapped enough it would probably do the trick, so long as it didn't cause any rot.. Sounds like a bit of work, and it may become problematic with future growth - unless it was a stretchable material..? Hmm lol

[coastal bend]

check out Spinsoad it might work.

[luigiwu]

Parafilm is stretchable but what is it that actually will deter them from working their way up? soemthing scratchy or??

[JaxRmrJmr]

I trap them with a pheromone lure. In a small backyard I usually got a few per week. Later in the season I was getting 50+ per week. It greatly helped with my squash.

Then the pickleworm moth showed up and did me in.

[LMinAL]

I have them here every year. The only thing that works for me is keeping them covered so the moth can't lay eggs as long as possible. By that time, the plant is large enough to sustain some damage.

My routine is to plant out, once seedlings come up I thin them out and put up my pvc hoops and tulle netting. I keep them covered until they outgrow the enclosure then spray spinosad. I also keep an eye out for eggs and handpick them as much as possible. Once you get to this stage, you will be able to tell if a borer has entered early by keeping a close watch on your leaves. If one starts to look discolored or wilty, look on the back of the stem or between the leaf veins and you will probably find the entry. I remove that leaf stem at the base and cover with dirt, then find the tiny bugger in the removed stem and squash it. The plant should be large enough by then to survive having a few leaf stems removed.

This has allowed me to have squash through early July until the pickleworm comes and then I just give up.

[saltmarsh]

LMinAL "This has allowed me to have squash through early July until the pickleworm comes and then I just give up."

http://www.permies.com/t/5865/biodyn...tail-Equisetum

I saw this video 4 years ago. It was the rabbit hole I fell through and started my journey with biodynamic methods.

LMinAL that video was taken in August. Look at those squash vines.

I grew up on a truck farm in North MS in the 1960s. Sharecropped several acres of squash each year. I sprayed with Seven and Malathion weekly and still lost about 10% of the fruit to Pickle worm.

If I had tried to use this on the farm my father would have beat me half to death. It's about 180 degrees out from everything I was taught growing up.

The first year I tried the teas, I didn't loose a single plant to squash vine borer and didn't loose a single fruit to pickle worm. Not one.

Some plants respond to the teas more than others. Squash really respond to them. People driving by on the road would stop and ask about them. They couldn't believe how quickly they grew and how healthy they looked. They had to be picked twice a day to keep the squash from getting too big.

No commercial fertilizer, no animal manures, no pesticides, no herbicides, no irrigation.

Just teas made from garlic powder, red pepper powder, ground sage; horsetail; Lacto bacillus inoculant; 1 TBLS molasses per gallon of tea used as a sticker; 1 TBLS Palmolive Orange dishwashing liquid per gallon of spray used as a spreader.

Simple cheap and it works. Claud

[reddeheddefarm]

will you give specifics on how to make this tea?

[dirtdobber]

I'm interested too. I didn't lose any squash last year to the SVB but I cut them out and reburied but now they know where a nice crop of squash will be this year.

[GoDawgs]

This is the first year I was diligent about watching for that first droopy leaf that indicates a SVB has visited. As soon as a leaf drooped I got out the syringe a diabetic friend gave me and loaded it with bT. Squash stems are hard enough that a needle won't penetrate so you have to put the syringe into the borer hole and shoot bT both up and down the stem. Then I piled soil over the hole area.

It seemed to help a lot. Yes, the SVBs eventually won but not before the squash had produced. These were acorn and butternut squash. The SVBs didn't bother the spaghetti squash. Go figure.

I have tried preventatively wrapping the stems with aluminum foil, strips of old row cover and panty hose. It would have been easy if the plant stem was just smooth but noooooo... There are leaf stalks close together that make wrapping the stem problematic. And *forget* trying to wrap panty hose or row cover strips around them as they catch on all of the tiny spines on every leaf stem. This was a pain in the patoot from last year and didn't work anyway:



As someone else mentioned, using cover over squash plants until they outgrow it gives them a good head start. After that, add in vigilance and bT injections and you might get some squash.

[SueCT]

There seems to be some confusion here between squash bugs and squash vine borer. The only thing I have found to work is fall planting. Last year I direct sowed on July 10. I did get some squash before the cool weather came, but mildew was a problem. i plan to plant seeds again this year, hopefully if not tommorow, very soon after. How well this works is going to depend on how long a season you have and how long the warm weather holds that year. At least I got some squash.

In the future, I hope to experiment with starting them in pots inside if necessary and planting out after the moths are gone, vs. direct sowing slightly earlier.

[GoDawgs]

Originally Posted by SueCT

There seems to be some confusion here between squash bugs and squash vine borer. The only thing I have found to work is fall planting. Last year I direct sowed on July 10. I did get some squash before the cool weather came, but mildew was a problem. i plan to plant seeds again this year, hopefully if not tommorow, very soon after. How well this works is going to depend on how long a season you have and how long the warm weather holds that year. At least I got some squash.

In the future, I hope to experiment with starting them in pots inside if necessary and planting out after the moths are gone, vs. direct sowing slightly earlier.

I've got one crookneck and one zuke grown in pots that are ready to set out tomorrow. I'm going to set up a few hoops with row cover over them until the plants outgrow it. Down here SVBs hang around a bit longer.

[SueCT]

If I had plants I would keep them in for probably another month. Since I am direct sowing seeds, they don't emerge for 7-10 days, and then are too small for the moths to either find or bother with. By mid August they should be gone. I try to plan to have it start producing in mid to late August to get a fall crop before it gets too cold. I probably will only get 3-4 weeks of squash but it is better than the none I get planting in spring, lol. Next year I might try starting them in the house and putting them out in August.

[KarenD]

Originally Posted by GoDawgs

This is the first year I was diligent about watching for that first droopy leaf that indicates a SVB has visited. As soon as a leaf drooped I got out the syringe a diabetic friend gave me and loaded it with bT. Squash stems are hard enough that a needle won't penetrate so you have to put the syringe into the borer hole and shoot bT both up and down the stem. Then I piled soil over the hole area.

It seemed to help a lot. Yes, the SVBs eventually won but not before the squash had produced. These were acorn and butternut squash. The SVBs didn't bother the spaghetti squash. Go figure.

I have tried preventatively wrapping the stems with aluminum foil, strips of old row cover and panty hose. It would have been easy if the plant stem was just smooth but noooooo... There are leaf stalks close together that make wrapping the stem problematic. And *forget* trying to wrap panty hose or row cover strips around them as they catch on all of the tiny spines on every leaf stem. This was a pain in the patoot from last year and didn't work anyway:



As someone else mentioned, using cover over squash plants until they outgrow it gives them a good head start. After that, add in vigilance and bT injections and you might get some squash.

GoDawgs I just found a svb entry point and I am going to try your technique of injecting BT. My plants are container gourds with a trellis. Entry point is to far up the vine to cover with soil but will try wrapping the spot with vet wrap. Vet wrap is a stretchy material that sticks to itself.

[GoDawgs]

Originally Posted by KarenD

GoDawgs I just found a svb entry point and I am going to try your technique of injecting BT. My plants are container gourds with a trellis. Entry point is to far up the vine to cover with soil but will try wrapping the spot with vet wrap. Vet wrap is a stretchy material that sticks to itself.

See how far up the vine you can get a needle to penetrate into the stem to shoot the bT "uphill". Any excess should drain "downhill" but hopefully you'll get far enough up to get that borer. You can also try to insert a piece of wire up the entry hole to try and pierce the borer. A two pronged approach.

Great idea about the vet wrap! I've got some in my first aid box and will try that next spring since I've already torn out my squash plants.

[Greatgardens]

I've changed my planting routine. I delay setting the plants out until after the borers emerge and lay eggs. For me that meant the end of June. So far, so good in 5b.