Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Squash Bugs

A healthy zucchini plant, two sad yellow squash plants, and one gaping hole that used to be a yellow squash.

I'm probably the first gardener in history who was happy to find her squash infested with squash bugs.  Why am I happy?  Because it means my squash plants weren't wiped out by vine borers before I even got any squash out of them!  (I'm not sure if that's because I planted in a new location or because I planted a little later than I otherwise would have, due to the prenancy.  I'll certainly try to repeat both next year!)  I tried spraying the plants with a dilute solution of an organic insecticide that is supposed to kill the young ones and the eggs, but it seems to have had no effect.  I also tried pulling the bugs off the squash and zucchini plants by hand and tossing them in soapy water, but they seem to have too great a numbers advantage on me for this year, because they were back in force the very next day.  I think next year I'll try an early application of kaolin clay (Surround WP), which I've heard good things about on message boards and which was suggested for keeping flea beetles off of eggplant by the HGIC.  I'm disappointed about the squash bugs, because they are also on my winter squash plants, and will probably kill them well before frost arrives.  But I am learning so much this year!

2 comments:

  1. You'll be repeating the new location or pregnancy? It's not entirely clear...

    ReplyDelete
  2. lol! i'd better get to work on that pregnancy

    ReplyDelete