Squash Bugs and Squash Vine Borers - What I Learned This Year

[Nattybo!]

Eldemila, your experience with vine borers and squash bugs this is exactly the same as mine. Too many and too fast. You definitely know what you are looking at and you definitely know what to do.

Zeroma, squash vine borers most definitely lay eggs! And anywhere along the vine, in singles, sometimes pairs, usually at the stem base but I have seen them laid near the end of a leaf stem. And the squash vine borers fly during the daylight hours even though they are moths. And yes, they are fast. They do not fly in a straight line but more of a zigzag.

[zeroma]

Originally Posted by Nattybo!

Eldemila, your experience with vine borers and squash bugs this is exactly the same as mine. Too many and too fast. You definitely know what you are looking at and you definitely know what to do.

Zeroma, squash vine borers most definitely lay eggs! And anywhere along the vine, in singles, sometimes pairs, usually at the stem base but I have seen them laid near the end of a leaf stem. And the squash vine borers fly during the daylight hours even though they are moths. And yes, they are fast. They do not fly in a straight line but more of a zigzag.

Yes Nattybo, I guess what I think of as the squash vine borer is the 'worm'/larva part of the life cycle and the adult that does the egg laying is the moth.

The adult moth does lay eggs along the stem of the plants. If I said it wrong, sorry, I was trying to explain but guess I didn't say what I thought I wanted to. Distracted with the dog poking his nose on the keyboard at the time wanting to go outside...didn't mean anything offensive.

[gorbelly]

Originally Posted by zeroma

What you think is the squash vine borer isn't. You are picking off Squash bug eggs, they will lay eggs on and under leaves in little clusters of brownish red color. The adult of the svb looks like a wasp/moth. The svb has a different lifecycle from the squash bug.

It's possible to pick off SVB eggs. They're quite visible down by the base of the plant, but they don't get laid in clusters. However, they can lay the stray egg further up or on a leaf or down just under the soil line, and you only need to miss one to lose a plant.

Originally Posted by zeroma

What you wrote:
"The SVB, there's not much I can do, they are too fast and too many. They are still out there laying their eggs. This is late for them compared to last year. I have pulled out a good 50 worms from my plants. About 6 a succumbed to their death from the borer, unfortunately."

My question, what is it that you are saying are too fast? a bug or a worm? When do you "see" the SVB? It isn't the SVB that lays the eggs. I think you are still seeing something other than SVB which is the larva (worm) which doesn't lay eggs, but grows inside the stem of the plant.

My understanding was that "too fast" meant the speed at which the borer takes the plant down. They really do seem to kill plants overnight. One day, the plant looks fine. The next day, everything is wilting, and even doing SVB "surgery" only has a small chance of saving the plant. It seems like the borer just reaches a critical size one day and kills the plant overnight as opposed to in a way that gives you warning symptoms in time to do something.

[eldemila]

Was Googling about squash bugs and came upon my old post of 2016. Thought I would add to this since it tis the season!

Last year I found something that worked pretty darn well when it came to the squash vine borer, and I'm repeating the process again this year.

I took head pins, the straight pins with a colored ball on the top (bought them at Walmart). I stick these straight in to the stems of the squash, and when they get bigger, I stick them down in where elbows are. If the vine borer lays the egg at the base, or towards the base, the worm grows in to the pin...and dies! Last year I had 3 vine borers that layed eggs towards farther up from the stem, but nothing at the base, or at least that lived.

This year, I saw a squash bug and some eggs, next day another squash bug and more eggs. I had a tub of Tanglefoot and decided to brush some on the wood of the squash I had planted in raised beds in hopes that if they crawled across the wood where the Tanglefoot was they'd stick to it and die, or be held captive til I found them and smashed them. Where I planted squash in the ground, a few I have next to trellises, so I brushed it on the wood part of the trellis.

The next day I go out and checked every solitary leaf...no eggs and I see no bugs. It's now 1 week since I brushed this thick gunk in the garden, and so far, no squash bugs, no eggs. Did see a vine borer today but I'm not so worried about them as I am the squash bugs.

The squash that's not in the raised beds I took some old bamboo poles that are broken up and took those and brushed the Tanglefoot on them and stuck them near the plant.

I won't know exactly how effective this is until the end of the season, but I'm praying that maybe the smell of this product is throwing the squash bugs off and making them go elsewhere. Where I live we have 2 cycles of this dreaded bug. Between the squash bug, the vine borer and the pickle worms it's been hard to harvest squash. I'm happy to say I ate my first cocozelle zucchini today...hoping more will follow.

Will try to remember to update this after the season ends. I'm hoping to have a good report and something that I'll repeat doing next year and years after! Now I just have to worry about the darn pickle worm...hoping this stuff will deter them too!

[brownrexx]

I have fought the SVB for years and tried all of the remedies like foil around the stem to no avail. Here is what works for me.

I purchase Thuricide which is a bt solution made by Bonide.

I dilute it as recommended on the bottle and use a syringe with an 18 gauge needle to inject it into the squash stems about 6 inches above the soil level.

Since the stems are hollow, the solution runs down the inside and coats them and any SVB caterpillars that are present. You can wait until you see signs of caterpillar poop (frass) but I usually inject after the plant starts to flower because I KNOW that those sneaky SVB moths will have laid eggs when I wasn't looking.

I also plant a second crop at about this time so that when/if the first crop dies, then I will have more producing.

This has worked well for me over the last 2-3 years and I have had plenty of zucchini which I really like.

[zeroma]

Originally Posted by brownrexx

I have fought the SVB for years and tried all of the remedies like foil around the stem to no avail. Here is what works for me.

I purchase Thuricide which is a bt solution made by Bonide.

I dilute it as recommended on the bottle and use a syringe with an 18 gauge needle to inject it into the squash stems about 6 inches above the soil level.

Since the stems are hollow, the solution runs down the inside and coats them and any SVB caterpillars that are present. You can wait until you see signs of caterpillar poop (frass) but I usually inject after the plant starts to flower because I KNOW that those sneaky SVB moths will have laid eggs when I wasn't looking.

I also plant a second crop at about this time so that when/if the first crop dies, then I will have more producing.

This has worked well for me over the last 2-3 years and I have had plenty of zucchini which I really like.

I'm just curious if you use good crop rotation with your method also? I like this method you describe.

[brownrexx]

Originally Posted by zeroma

I'm just curious if you use good crop rotation with your method also? I like this method you describe.

I do rotate my crops but it really doesn't help for preventing the SVB. They can fly for up to 2 miles and my garden is not THAT big!


As for taking down a plant quickly -it's not really as quick as you think. The SVB takes several weeks from egg to large, plant killing larva. It just seems like the plant dies quickly because we don't notice that it is infected until the damage is already done and it is ready to die. The plant survives with the larva inside for several weeks. From the SVB's point of view, the plant has to survive long enough for the larvae to grow to a mature size so that they can pupate.

[gorbelly]

Originally Posted by brownrexx

I do rotate my crops but it really doesn't help for preventing the SVB. They can fly for up to 2 miles and my garden is not THAT big!

I think crop rotation is really just the issue when you want to use a row cover strategy, right? Because if you don't rotate, you risk having moths hatching from pupae in the soil and mating and laying eggs anyway despite the trouble you've gone through to cover and hand-pollinate your squash.

Originally Posted by brownrexx

As for taking down a plant quickly -it's not really as quick as you think. The SVB takes several weeks from egg to large, plant killing larva. It just seems like the plant dies quickly because we don't notice that it is infected until the damage is already done and it is ready to die. The plant survives with the larva inside for several weeks. From the SVB's point of view, the plant has to survive long enough for the larvae to grow to a mature size so that they can pupate.

Right. But from our point of view, it's easy to miss tiny bore holes, and it seems like the plant is a goner overnight. Even diligent and experienced gardeners experience the heartbreak of walking out one morning and realizing that the borers killed one of the plants that looked 100% fine the day before. It's not like a pest that takes down plants by defoliation.

[brownrexx]

Originally Posted by gorbelly

I think crop rotation is really just the issue when you want to use a row cover strategy, right? Because if you don't rotate, you risk having moths hatching from pupae in the soil and mating and laying eggs anyway despite the trouble you've gone through to cover and hand-pollinate your squash.



Right. But from our point of view, it's easy to miss tiny bore holes, and it seems like the plant is a goner overnight. Even diligent and experienced gardeners experience the heartbreak of walking out one morning and realizing that the borers killed one of the plants that looked 100% fine the day before. It's not like a pest that takes down plants by defoliation.

This is true but I roto till once a year in the Fall which hopefully exposes the pupae to bird predation and death from the cold in the winter months. I tried row covers one year and still got SVB so now I use the bt as a preventative and it seems to work better for me. I also had trouble with row covers because the zucchini plants got so big that they created gaps in the covers and that is probably how the moths got inside and infected them. I had grown a parthenogenic variety that does not require insect pollination so I did not open the row covers to hand pollinate.




Yes, it definitely seems like an overnight event to us but according to PA State entomologists the larvae feed for 4 weeks before killing the plant. This is probably why I have good luck with injecting the bt into the stems before I even see any damage. if you wait until you see the damage, then it will probably be too late. I know that they will infect my plants so I inject the bt as a preventative. It is the only way I feel confident that I will have zucchini.

http://ento.psu.edu/extension/factsh...ash-vine-borer

[brownrexx]

I interpreted the "too fast" as the SVB moths are too fast to catch. I have often seen one on a plant and I try to grab it to no avail. It's like trying to swat a fly with your hand.

Using bt is the only way I would ever get any squash. I have never tried spinosad but it's good to know that it works too. I only grow 4-5 summer squash plants.

[zeroma]

browrexx...since you have this method under good understanding, how about you ask a facebook blog about it. It is "the garden professors" on facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Gard...c_ref=NEWSFEED

They will dig up only science based - peer reviewed papers and give their reply. I don't want to take your idea and post there because I'm sure I'd get something wrong in my way of saying what you already understand. I love asking them for their help because you get science not myths.

z

[brownrexx]

Please feel free to ask them if injections of bt into the squash stem are effective. I am not a big Facebook user.

There are lots of reliable postings online that say it does work. Here is one of them, but there are many more and I have seen firsthand that it does work in my garden. bt kills caterpillars and larvae so it is natural to assume that coating the interior stem tissue with bt will kill the SVB larvae that are eating it. I have also heard that spinosad injections will work but I have not tried them.

http://articles.extension.org/pages/...arming-systems

Here is an excerpt if you do not want to read the entire thing.

Stem injections of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are frequently recommended for squash vine borer management, especially for organic gardeners. Trials in South Carolina compared spray application and stem injection of commercial formulations of Bt with a conventional insecticide and an untreated control (Canhilal and Carner, 2007). The injection and spray application methods produced similar results, and the Bt treatments provided control similar to that of the conventional insecticide.

I am an organic gardener so I prefer this to application of conventional pesticides. Since the results are similar, why add pesticides to your plants?

[b54red]

I have been keeping them off my plants for years with a rather simple technique. I use a small bulb duster and dust the lower stem with a good coating of Sevin up to where the blossoms are. I do not dust blossoms or anything above open blossom area and have had no problem with SVB starting higher up the plant but I don't doubt they can. Every time there is a heavy rain and the Seving is washed off I just walk down the row and dust the stems of course as the season goes along the dusting has to go further up each time. I eventually get sick of squash and just let them go or pull them up but I haven't last any plants to SVBs in years using this technique. The only problem would be a long rainy spell but that hasn't happened so bad that I couldn't keep the Sevin on them but I could see it happening and if it does I might try the BT injections.

Bill

[greenthumbomaha]

Originally Posted by b54red

I have been keeping them off my plants for years with a rather simple technique. I use a small bulb duster and dust the lower stem with a good coating of Sevin up to where the blossoms are. I do not dust blossoms or anything above open blossom area and have had no problem with SVB starting higher up the plant but I don't doubt they can. Every time there is a heavy rain and the Seving is washed off I just walk down the row and dust the stems of course as the season goes along the dusting has to go further up each time. I eventually get sick of squash and just let them go or pull them up but I haven't last any plants to SVBs in years using this technique. The only problem would be a long rainy spell but that hasn't happened so bad that I couldn't keep the Sevin on them but I could see it happening and if it does I might try the BT injections.

Bill

In prior years, the borer and the squash bug were so bad we didn't get a single squash, and that was with crop rotation. This year, we rotated again and grew on woven weed block to try and defeat the squash bug from overwintering. About a month ago my partner sprinkled the squash plants with Sevin. I cringed but kept quiet as I didn't want to feel guilty if either yucky bug came. Well, with tons and tons of rain, and as far as I know only one dusting, the plants are chugging along. Squash overload though I love it. I haven't spoken with any other local growers to see if the bugs were killed off my our cold winter or if it is just a fluke that the one time Sevin application worked. Not a chemical fan but this is great if it worked.

- Lisa

[b54red]

Originally Posted by greenthumbomaha

In prior years, the borer and the squash bug were so bad we didn't get a single squash, and that was with crop rotation. This year, we rotated again and grew on woven weed block to try and defeat the squash bug from overwintering. About a month ago my partner sprinkled the squash plants with Sevin. I cringed but kept quiet as I didn't want to feel guilty if either yucky bug came. Well, with tons and tons of rain, and as far as I know only one dusting, the plants are chugging along. Squash overload though I love it. I haven't spoken with any other local growers to see if the bugs were killed off my our cold winter or if it is just a fluke that the one time Sevin application worked. Not a chemical fan but this is great if it worked.

- Lisa

If too much of it gets washed off by rain then the SVBs will hit the plants quickly. I never have to worry about whether or not they are around down here. From spring til I quit growing squash I see the moths that lay the eggs every morning around the plants and on the plants. Once you learn to spot them it isn't hard to see them but they do move rather like a fast bee but once they light you can readily spot them.

I don't dust the whole plant just the stems up to the blooms. Once the fruit borers hit I will dust some of the young fruits but never the blossoms because squash plants really attract honey bees in my garden. This year I had more honey bees than I have seen in 20 years so I guess the way I use the Sevin isn't hurting them.

Squash overload is what I have had for the past few years since perfecting this technique of stopping the SVBs and I eventually just give up and pull them but by the time I do they are gigantic plants sometimes so big I can't even drag them to the street without cutting them into manageable size. For many years I tried the tinfoil on the stems and other methods and usually lost most of my plants byabout a month after they started making fruit unless I foolishly tried growing some in the fall and then I would usually lose all of them before getting a single fruit.

Another thing that has greatly increased the life span of my squash plants is using the diluted bleach spray every time I spray my tomatoes I spray the undersides of all my squash leaves and the tops. This keeps all those mildews from getting started good. I also spray them with either Daconil or Copper sprays when I spray my tomatoes.

Bill