[jim/se kansas]

How do you get rid of squash bugs? They tap into the stem and suck the sap out and kill the plant one stem at a time.
thanks, Jim

 

[heelpin]

How do you get rid of squash bugs? They tap into the stem and suck the sap out and kill the plant one stem at a time.
thanks, Jim

Jim, they get my squash every year but not before they have produced a pretty good crop, so I just try to keep planting to have some coming in. The bug is squash borer, I think the eggs are laid around the base of the plant by a little wasp looking insect black with a little red, not sure about that but I have seen this bug around the plants and assumed this is the one thats doing it. The eggs hatch out into larvae and this is what bores into the vine. I'm thinking about putting collars around the base and see if that will help. I don't use poison but I've read that you can inject seven dust into the hole where the borer went in and kill it but you know that seven dust also goes right into the squash. I mulched mine heavily last year but it didn't help.

Tom

 

[Guest]

How do you get rid of squash bugs? They tap into the stem and suck the sap out and kill the plant one stem at a time.
thanks, Jim

Geese?

 

[Ardie/WI]

We never could get rid of them, but I found a way to discourage them! Radishes! When we'd plant the squash, we'd also plant radishes all around them like a cover crop. I'd buy the cheapest radish seed I could find and leave them go to seed. The squash bug didnt like them!

 

[southerngurl]

No, I don't think he means squash vine borers, but squash bugs, like stink bugs kinda. I hate them things, they are satans spawn, they are ugly, they smell bad, and they lie, cheat, and steal.

What I usually end up doing is going through the garden every day and picking them off. I usually have a rock or stick (me cavegirl, ug) and squish em. Turn over EVERY leaf, and kill them. Get those brown-red eggs too. Carfully lift up the vine and they will be under there too. As they try to run in horrer, squish them without mercy.

You can try pyrethrins also.

Last year my grandma told me about a mixture an elderly lady at the nursing home told her to try. She showed me a dead black squash bug to prove it worked. It was a mixture of vinegar, dish soap and water. I can't remember the amounts though. I tried it last year, but everytime I did, it rained and saved the little demons. After 3 tries I quit putting it on there because I was afraid it might start hurting the plants to have too much in the soil.

I have also been told you can blend them up in a blender with water and red pepper (might just do that anyway for fun MWAAAHAHAHAHA) and run it though some cheesecloth and spray the bugs with it and it is supposed to kill them. I might just mash some up and mix them in water and strain them, rather than find an old blender somewhere to clutter up the house.

 

[heelpin]

Southerngurl, I've found a way to deal with the black stinkbugs that is so hard to control in the fall on tomatoes, just by chance I had some Sunflower seed in the green stage and the stinkbugs loved them. These were the giant Sunflowers and I've seen the head completely covered and stacked on top of one another. I tried burning them but couldn't do a lot before they flew, then I when to dropping a plastic bag over them and tying it off, the hot sun will take care of the rest. This is the best solution I've found for this problem.