THE DREADED SQUASHBUG

[catjac1975]

TO MY GARDENING FRIENDS RE: THE DREADED SQUASH BUG. It is early in the season. I answered a question about the squash bug for someone else. So I thought I would share my longwinded approach. This is what works for me. It took a long time for me to work out organic means to even grow squash. This is what I have learned and what works for me. A rambling bit of facts. I use a lot of compost and truckloads of leaves. I used to mulch my squash with leaves. All that did was make the population of SB explode. That gave them a perfect hiding and breeding place. I use leaves for compost but no long to mulch my cucurbits. I use horse and chickens manurer fertilizer. I mention this because the commonly held belief in organic is that robust plants are not attractive to insects. It took a long time to lower the population. I find using grass clippings for my plants keeps the weeds down and does not create the problem that leaves did. I use only organic insecticides . And rarely. I occasionally have to use BT for various larvae on corn and broccoli. But not every year even. I do not ever plan to eliminate every insect, even if if is a bad one. I go under the philosophy that everything has to eat. If you eliminate one in the chain you will create an imbalance. If I see ladybug larva and praying mantis egg casings I keep them in a safe place in my garden. I feel as if the most important thing that I do for insect control is let my chickens forage in my vegetable garden all winter. They are out there right now scratching and eating. I propose that they are devouring larvae hiding in the soil. Scientifically proven? Nope. Just applying my cursory knowledge of science and common sense. And it seems to work for me. Another important thing to note. Vining cucurbits seem to be less attractive to the squash bug. Growing them on a fence keeps mine free of pests. The ones they seem to like the best are bush type yellow squash and zucchini. Here is what I have found out. Timing seems to be the solution for these types. (This applies to the vine borer pest too.) I plant my home grown squash seedlings out in peat pots. At the same time I direct sow seeds of the same squash, and again a few weeks later. If I have time I like to seed 3 times at different intervals. I pull out the earlier plants if they appear stricken. If they have insects on them I feed the whole plant to the chickens. They never get to the plants of each generation, usually just one planting. One more invader is the yellow cucumber beetle. Lately I have not had a big problem. But, what they do, is weaken the seedling for an increase in disease. Any organic product seems to work on these. Hope this helps. However trial and error makes the best gardener.
3Patty Horrocks Apperson, Lanette Spranzo Macaruso and 1 other

 

[Zeedman]

SVB is a serious problem here, so if I want any Maxima or Pepo squashes, I need to protect the plants with row cover during their egg-laying period (late June into July). Fortunately, by the time that flowering begins & the cover needs to be removed for pollination, the egg-laying period has passed. As it turns out, the cover also protects from the first hatch of both squash bugs, and cucumber beetles. The squash bugs usually don't reappear after that, or if they do, not in large enough numbers to be a problem.

I don't use floating row cover on Tromboncino, because it is nearly immune to SVB. It does, however, get attacked by squash bugs. Oddly, the infestation has been the worst the two times the vines were trellised, including in 2020. When I grow Tromboncino on the ground (which is my preferred method) squash bugs may attack the young plants. Cucumber beetles are attracted to plants under stress; so where I see a swarm of cucumber beetles on a particular plant, I usually find a squash bug or two at the base of the stem. I use an insecticidal soap solution in a spray bottle to kill them; both adults & nymphs are very susceptible to the spray if they are completely wetted down, and die quickly.

Squash bugs like to hide in litter, so like @catjac1975 , I don't mulch under my squash (cucumber beetles hide in litter as well). But if you want to find squash bugs, check any dead squash leaves. They will hide in those curled-up dead leaves, sometimes in large numbers. So when you see squash bugs, removing all dead leaves frequently (while taking pains to kill any bugs which attempt to escape) will give the bugs fewer places to hide, and make controlling them easier.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

I’ve never had major problems with squash bugs here. (I probably just jinxed myself). I was told to wrap the base of the plant in foil to prevent borers

 

[digitS']

Leaves also harbor stink bugs. I recall moving from the garden on one side of a house of friends to the other side where they had a pile of leaves through the winter/spring. I have never seen so many stink bugs - they were all over the leaves and climbing the walls of the house!

They are common pests for several garden plants including the vining ones.

There was a show on PBS about kids learning about wildlife. One little kid had a stink bug on his finger. I thought, "Noooo!" But, I suppose they have a place in the natural world. A garden is domestic and we must take responsibility for it. IMHO

Steve

 

[catjac1975]

I’ve never had major problems with squash bugs here. (I probably just jinxed myself). I was told to wrap the base of the plant in foil to prevent borers

Maybe a more regional pest.

 

[catjac1975]

Leaves also harbor stink bugs. I recall moving from the garden on one side of a house of friends to the other side where they had a pile of leaves through the winter/spring. I have never seen so many stink bugs - they were all over the leaves and climbing the walls of the house!

They are common pests for several garden plants including the vining ones.

There was a show on PBS about kids learning about wildlife. One little kid had a stink bug on his finger. I thought, "Noooo!" But, I suppose they have a place in the natural world. A garden is domestic and we must take responsibility for it. IMHO

Steve

Aren't stink bugs and squash bugs the same pest?

 

[digitS']

Too, too many of these pests!

Aren't stink bugs and squash bugs the same pest?

Very similar, unless we are talking about the Vine Borer, Cat'.

squash-bug

Stink bug Both the brown and green are here.

Then, there are the Cucumber beetles.

I think that I have those links in the right places.

Steve

 

[Zeedman]

Aren't stink bugs and squash bugs the same pest?

Closely related. Both are "true bugs" (the order Hemiptera) but different species.Their ranges are similar, mostly in the central & Eastern U.S..

Those West of the Rockies are fortunate to have neither the bugs nor borers; all I remember dealing with in California was cucumber beetles.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't have a photo of squash bugs. Squash bugs overwhelmed me in Arkansas. Not only did the numbers grow exceedingly large but they spread a wilting disease. Some years they weren't too bad, I could at least get a few squash, but most years the only squash I could grow and get something was Tromboncini. For some reason they never seemed to bother it much. The squash vine borer was not much of a problem. Squash bugs are a type of stink bug. They don't chew the plant, they drink the juices. That means pesticides, organic or otherwise, that requires them to eat it don't work. You have to use a contact pesticide, organic or otherwise, to kill it with pesticides.

In Louisiana I removed these Squash Vine Borers from one yellow summer squash plant. Not a stink bug at all. They were not just at the base of the plant, they were fairly high up. All these were in one plant. I don't try anymore.

In the south the Squash Vine Borer has two seasons. Further north only one. Depending in where you are if you are far enough north you may be able to avoid the SVB by timing your planting. Doesn't seem to work further south.

 

[Zeedman]

In the south the Squash Vine Borer has two seasons. Further north only one. Depending in where you are if you are far enough north you may be able to avoid the SVB by timing your planting. Doesn't seem to work further south.

Most years I grow Tromboncino; but in the few years I've grown zucchini here, I put off planting until about July 4th. That seemed to bypass the SVB infestation, those plants were healthy.

In 2019 the egg-laying period was unusually long, well into July. It was so bad that there were even larvae in some of the squash (they bored their way out before harvest). I went through the patch several times, using a hand-held water pick to flush larvae out of their holes. It saved the plants & the developing squash, so I got a good harvest. But apparently I over-estimated what percentage had been killed. Because in late June 2020, with the garden already planted, I suddenly found these where the squash had been grown:

These were the shed chrysalises of SVB which had burrowed in & over-wintered. There were about 20-30 of them visible where the squash row had been, and probably more just under the surface. The remarkable thing is the ground in that area had been roto-tilled at least 4-5 times before being planted; so apparently the pupae can't be killed by cultivation. This really illustrates why you should not plant squash in the same place as the previous year, if SVB were present.