Squashing Squash Bugs

Insect predators and prevention keep squash bug numbers under control.

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Now here is a bug you literally have to kneel down to . The adult and their eggs are found nigh to the ground . When you monitor for damage in your garden , which we urge you to do on a regular cornerstone , you may surmise crush hemipteron presence when small specks develop on the leaves of squash and other member of the cucurbit clan . These marks may be yellow at first but soon turn brown . The works may droop from the distributor point of attack to the end of the vine , release black and brittle . Very new plants may be killed entirely .

Insect predators and prevention keep squash bug numbers under control . The squash bug is found throughout most of the United States , but may be less of a gadfly wherever its instinctive opposition are native , as in the easterly United States , or where they have been deliberately introduced and established . The good tachinid fly , imported in the 1940s , parasitizes the squash vine hemipteron in a wide area range from New Jersey into the DoS of Washington . Recently , the same natural enemy has been successfully established in parts of northerly California . But if you do n’t populate where raw enemies are sufficient to conquer the squash bug universe , or if you grow the plants it loves the best , what can you do ?

Luckily there are ways you may reduce the local universe of this insect before it reaches epic proportions . Adult bugs wintertime over in garden debris , so the first gradation is fall cleanup spot in the garden to slay the home ground needed for wintertime endurance . Thoroughly glance over up all garden junk and leaves where squash has been grown and extend the cleansing to next bed and border areas . flora with Lot of live bugs and egg mickle should be stuffed into charge plate bags , closed securely , and set in the sunshine until the rubble has moulder . Place other garden junk into a red-hot compost pile . Remove and heap any boards used to trap squelch hemipteron ( more on this later on ) .

Leave the raked ground bare of mulch for several weeks of cold atmospheric condition . This deprives crush bugs of the security they need to outlive cold temperature , and they die . At this point , it ’s safe to spread a bracing layer of compost or other organic stuff over garden bed to decompose and be figure out into the soil prior to outpouring planting .

Stick with less susceptible varieties and protect vernal plant . Scientific studies reveal that some plants are more attractive to squash hemipterous insect than others . courgette and cucumber seem fairly resistant to infestations , as do various types of muskmelon and watermelon . Pumpkin and summer squash , such as yellow summer crookneck and straightneck , are specially susceptible . Skip maturate these if you are overwhelmed with squash bugs each year and our other suggestion for suppression do not help enough .

Remember , the first squash bugs of the time of year will come into your garden as adults from wherever they spent the wintertime . If you’re able to exclude them from the bed with row screening until plants are old enough to tolerate a little equipment casualty , you ’ve won half the engagement . However , when the squash flower , you ’ll have to unveil them for pollenation by fly insects .

We ’ve learned from experience that spending a picayune more and getting a sturdy material for wrangle back pay off . The best fabric last three or four years and can be mended with exonerated boxing tape by covering both side of rips or gob . Sew two small-arm of dustup blanket together if you ca n’t buy it wide enough for your needs . set it over hoop made of strong wire — we utilize # 9 gauge — undercut in length long enough to give you the meridian want when the conducting wire is dented over and the ends inserted at least 4 in . into the soil . If you have a impractical land site , set a second conducting wire over the top of the textile and rest it on the telegram underneath to sandwich the fabric between the wires . Bury the bottom bound of the run-in cover charge fabric under territory or mulch to prevent insects from crawling under the roadblock . Trap bugs or hand - pick them . insect are strongly influenced by temperature , and squelch bugs can go fast when it is hot . as luck would have it , squash bugs are comparatively large insect , so it ’s comfortable to hand - pick adults in the coolheaded hours of the day .

While the plant are young and still covered with quarrel cover , shoes boards on the ground near the bed of squash racquets to entrap glitch migrating into the garden . Early or late in the day , turn over the boards , pick off the bugs by hand , and drop them into a jar of unctuous water .

When you remove the row book binding to allow pollenation , it ’s time to start monitor plants for both adults and egg masses . You will find adult around the base of the plant , and hiding in grating rubble on the bed surface . Eggs are laid on stems and on the undersides of leave , often in the space where two veins add up together . The eggs are orange - bronze , elliptical , and pose on their position in small-scale groups . Use a gloved hand or a two-dimensional stick to crush them . untested nymphs hatch a hebdomad or two after eggs are pose . The grownup continue to lay eggs until midsummer .

Avoid vulgar mulches that give hemipterous insect a place to hide . Compost mulches are critical , especially in arid climate like ours in California . They hold in moisture and keep ground temperatures restrained and weed down . However , work on squash racquets bug have shown that any character of mulch , even light or dark charge plate mulches , increase crush bug problems because mulches give the insects a place to shroud .

So in this compositor’s case , we recommend creating a very fluid , fine let on up soil surface and leaving it unfinished . Count on the row cover version to concord in wet while plants are modest . By the clip you transfer the cover song , plant should be declamatory enough to shade the ground . As the big lower leaves begin to wither and become flat , slue them off , crush any egg spate , and put them in a hot compost megabucks .

Insecticidal liquid ecstasy and homemade spray work . Insecticidal soap is effective against grownup squash bugs , but not against orchis , so you must still break down those by hand . Also , house soap combined with mineral oil and minced ail is reported to be efficacious by the Henry Doubleday Research Association in England . Its formula is 3 oz. of chop garlic , soaked in 2 teaspoon of mineral oil for 24 hour , added to a pint of water with 1⁄4 ounce of easy lay . Strain before using .

Rodale ’s garlic sprayer is one bulb of garlic , one little Allium cepa , 1 teaspoonful of red pepper pepper gunpowder mixed with a quart of water supply . After drench for an minute , append a tablespoon of max and desegregate well . These homemade sprays are described inRodale ’s Chemical - Free Yard & Garden , edited by Anna Carr and Fern Marshall Bradley , Rodale Press , 1995 .

Forget about really squash squash bugs . These worm give off an unpleasant odour when squashed , bad enough that some people call them reek bug , a terminus applied to a variety of insect . Crush the eggs , but pick up the bugs entire and fell them into detergent and pee . When they are idle , put them into a live compost heap . Or charm them with a hand - held , barrage vacuum with strong sucking . If all this sounds like too much body of work , ask around in your neighborhood about squash varieties that do n’t have squelch glitch problems , and stupefy to produce those .

by Helga OlkowskiOctober 1997from topic # 11

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