Your plans for dealing with squash bugs and vine borers

[Jaysan]

What will you be doing this year to deal with these pests? I have read a lot about things people do but would like to hear your experience.

Last year was the first for me with borers. They killed all my squash. Since I am in the south I had two seasons of them and they got my 2nd plantings too.

I did dig them out of the vines and kill them.

The squash bugs I could control by killing the adults and squashing eggs by hand. I support my plants and that made it easier to do. Also I only grow enough for two people to eat.

I wonder what market growers do.........I am guessing large scale pesticides?

I did see a you tube video of a guy using a dish washing soap and water mix that killed squash bugs but haven't tried that.

[linzelu100]

This is my experience and I live in Virginia too. They can be awful.

I plant a black beauty zucchini no matter what- and I leave that one plant for the squash bugs, they love it and stay off my others for the most part. I even get a black beauty zucchini from it here and there...but I only plant it as a decoy. If you plant lemon squash they don't even go near that one. I don't know why, but it's not my favorite so I also plant other types too.

Then for SVB, you can transplant outdoors that way the plants are stronger when the bugs come. They can handle stress better. I don't do that really- I just plant a seed outside and keep covers on them until they are grown with flowers- then remove for pollination. (transplanting can effect a strong taproot- so in this case I would not save seed from transplanted plants.)

Then I keep vigilant looking for "sawdust" around the plant base. Once I see the vine borer- I slice it open vertically and remove the bug. I put dirt over the wound, water and give it fish emulsion. It comes back to life good enough.

The last thing I do is rotations of squash (zucchini types) I plant in 2 weeks outdoors. 3 weeks later I plant a new row, 3 weeks later a new row. Then rip out any zucchini plant thats not doing good and plant with something else.

For Winter squash types- No rotation- they need too long. I grow a lot of those each year and I do fine. Just vigilant checking for removal.

Good luck!

[BigVanVader]

Squash bugs are the worst thing I have to deal with here in the upstate, I finally got tired of trying to control them so now I just use cover cloth for them all and hand pollinate. It is the only thing that works 100% for me.

[Jaysan]

I was considering doing exactly that. I only grow summer squash and only about 8 altogether, some early and some late.
I grow squash in SWCs and thought of building a frame around them and screening it in, putting plastic on the sunny side in case screen blocked too much sunlight.

Won't be this year though.

I was wondering if smearing vaseline on the main stem would discourage the borers from laying eggs.

[Wi-sunflower]

I am a commercial grower of both zucchini, summer squash and lots of winter squash.

I've been fortunate in that we have never had much of a squash vine borer problem so we don't even look for them.

We are starting to get a bit of a build-up of squash bugs (those gray shield bugs) but for the most part they don't do enough damage to bother with them.

The Cucumber beetles tho are my big problem. Both the striped and spotted types. If they find the newly germinated squash plants they can eat the plants to death. We've lost thousands of feet of row to those boogers. For years we would spray Sevin with mediocre results. A couple of years ago Hubby found an antique duster in a junk store. Since then he's used the Sevin Dust and THAT seems to work well against them.

My farmers market leans rather heavily to Organic. While we are not Organic, we don't use much of any chemicals most years. Most of the customers that ask, are OK with the fact that what we use is NOT systemic and is put on when the plants are only at the 2-3 leaf stage, long before there are even any flowers, let alone fruit.

Carol

[Zeedman]

Three solutions have worked for me:

- Start the squash in peat pots (Jiffy strips), and cover with floating row cover as soon as they are transplanted. The row cover is buried at the edges, with enough slack to allow the squash leaves to push it up as they grow. When the squash either outgrow the cover or start to bloom, the cover is removed. In my area, the SVB egg laying period has ended by then. So, apparently, has most of the first hatch of cucumber beetle & squash bug. The squash are virtually trouble free from that point on.

- Plant fast-maturing varieties late. This worked (accidentally) last year, when heavy rains kept me from planting until the July 4th weekend. I had to scrap plans for most of my squash, and planted short DTM zucchini & yellow straight neck instead. I over planted, expecting heavy losses... but to my surprise, there were no insect issues. Apparently the late planting also avoided the egg laying periods. I found myself rolling in zukes.

- For summer squash, plant Tromboncino (a.k.a. Zucchetta Rampicante) instead of bush summer squash. Tromboncino, like its cousin the Butternut, is highly borer resistant. They get attacked, but once the vines get several feet long, the plant is able to defend itself. I might see frass briefly, but if I check again a week later, there is no more frass & the vine has healed.

I use several variations of soap spray, with Dawn or baby shampoo as the soap. You can also use Safers insecticidal soap, to lessen the possibility of leaf burn... but I just use regular soap, and spray the leaves clean after the bugs are dead. To kill squash bugs, I add rubbing alcohol to the mix... provided the bugs are completely covered, they die quickly. This solution also kills the eggs. Cucumber beetles are harder to kill, adding cooking oil to the mix increases effectiveness.

A poster on another forum listed the USDA's recommended soap spray formula in 2006, it has been the starting point for my own experimentation:

INSECTICIDE: A U.S.D.A. formula combining oil and soap is effective in killing soft-bodied insects. Mix 1 cup peanut, safflower, corn, soybean, or sunflower oil with 1 tablespoon liquid dishwashing detergent. To make the spray, use 11/2 teaspoons of the oil-detergent mixture for each cup of water.

Rubbing alcohol increases the effectiveness, since it paralyses on contact. At the right strength, it will even spray wasps out of the air.

[linzelu100]

Is this Zeedman, the bean enthusiast from gardenweb?

[BigVanVader]

Start the squash in peat pots (Jiffy strips), and cover with floating row cover as soon as they are transplanted. The row cover is buried at the edges, with enough slack to allow the squash leaves to push it up as they grow. When the squash either outgrow the cover or start to bloom, the cover is removed. In my area, the SVB egg laying period has ended by then. So, apparently, has most of the first hatch of cucumber beetle & squash bug. The squash are virtually trouble free from that point on.

This is my technique as well, after the squash get good sized I don't have any problems, and as far as building a cage etc I would just use floating row covers. They are cheap and work well for this purpose, especially since squash are so easy to hand pollinate. I have small rows of squash as well so I just use PVC pipes bent over in places and throw the cloth over that then bury one side in soil and use two 2x4s nailed together in an L shape with a hinge in the middle so I can just fold 1 side over and lift the cloth to pollinate then do the other side the same. It works well and is super easy to customize the size/shape of the boards to fit different beds/rows. Good Luck with yer squash ;D

[Durgan]

I can buy all the squash fruit that I need just down the road. Perfect and not expensive, since I only need about eight for juice.

I lose all my squash every year only about six plants. The squash bug, SVB, and the cucumber beetles devastate the plants when they are growing in all their glory. I will now give up for a few years and maybe try again.

The cucumber beetles are most prolific, more every year. Maybe the cold winter knocked them out this year. I will move the cucumbers across the yard to see if this helps.

[Jaysan]

What would make it difficult for me to use row covers is I plant in 18 gallon SWCs.
I would have to figure out a way to seal the cover to the sides.

But I will be looking at how to do it.

Also unfortunately here in VA we get the borers twice. Happened to me last year with 2nd plantings. But if I can keep them away until August I will get a lot of squash before then ans maybe I could just have two plantings timed so they each can be covered while the borers are active.

[Zeedman]

Jaysan, I've heard about the second SVB hatch from others in the warmer latitudes. It must take considerable timing to protect squash. I remember reading (wish I had bookmarked it!) that the SVB hatch was triggered by heat units, and could be predicted within a margin of error based upon local weather observations. Not sure if that would apply to the second hatch, but what a tool it would be if you could anticipate the moths before they appeared. I count my lucky stars that I only have one hatch to deal with.

BigVanVader, your hinged cover sounds interesting, but I'm having trouble visualizing it. Any chance of a photo?

Durgan, you've reminded me of something I forgot to post above, re: cucumber beetles. It has been my observation that heavy fertilization of squash plants seems to increase the numbers of beetles, and stimulates the "swarming" behavior. Cucumber beetles find their food plants by smell... it is my suspicion that the rapid growth caused by fertilization gives off a stronger scent, and attracts the beetles in greater numbers. Since I stopped fertilizing, I get fewer squash, but I also get cucumber beetles in smaller, more controllable numbers.

One more observation about cucumber beetles - and their relationship with squash bugs. Plants already under attack by something else will be especially attractive to the beetles, probably due to the squash plant's defensive production of increased amounts of cucurbitacin. Early attacks by adult squash bugs on young Tromboncino plants will cause this phenomenon... so if I see a swarm of CB on a particular plant, I search underneath, and nearly always find a squash bug or two feeding. Checking the plants without swarms, I seldom find a squash bug. So the silver lining of the swarming cucumber beetles is that they "flag" the first adult squash bugs for easy extermination, while their eggs are few & easily located. With the squash bugs gone (and the swarm of beetles destroyed), the plant returns to good health, and is less attractive to the beetles.

Edit: Jaysan, I might have an idea that would work for your SWCs. To make a sealed cover over your container, place landscape cloth under the container (going out as far as you want the cover to reach) then roll the edges of the landscape cloth & row cover together. You could use clothes pins or bricks to keep the edge sealed, which would allow opening for hand pollination.

[ChrisK]

The only thing I can think of for the SVB is to plant a parthenocarpic zucchini and keep it covered the entire time. I've found it impossible to grow most squash here in NC except for some of the solid stem types...but those succumb to the mildews.

[Jaysan]

Zeedman as far as timing I guess about the only way to attempt it would be to cover until the female blooms begin opening then uncover. maybe.......

Found this article. Good info on it including lifecycle and covering.

http://www.toxicfreenc.org/organicga...tml#life_cycle

[joseph]

I deal with squash bugs by allowing promiscuous pollination, and planting genetically diverse seeds, and not saving seeds from any plant that fails to produce fruit. I don't care if bugs munch on a plant as long as it produces a harvest for me. If it produces an abundant harvest in spite of the bugs then that's even better.

[ScottinAtlanta]

Joseph, in Georgia, the borers would consider you "Party Time!".