dealing with squash bugs

[macmex]

Squash and pumpkins are very good crops for our region. There might even still be time to plant for a fall harvest. Unfortunately, there are pests which can cause a crop failure. In recent years I've had to deal with squash bugs on a large scale. They caused total crop failures twice, some years ago, and that with me planting a c. moschata variety. Anything c. moschata is generally pretty insect resistant.

Last year I planted Old Timey Cornfield pumpkin a little early, in hopes of getting an even larger crop than usual. They plants emerged and grew to about the size of a teacup. Then they stalled and didn't grow for a couple of weeks. I was busy and didn't get out there for a good visual. But when I did, I had lost some plants. It turned out that there were squash bugs hiding around the base of the plants and sucking the life out of them. If the variety hadn't been quite resistant, to begin with, they would have died very quickly.

I really don't like to use insecticides, and frankly, without using some kind of a "nuclear option" I doubt that any pesticide would really have worked. Squash bugs are very hardy. But I started tinkering and discovered that, though I couldn't see the little buggers, if I poured water at the base of the plants, they would come scrambling up for air! When they did, I caught and squished them (I use my fingers.). I did this for about 5 days and finally no more squash bugs appeared for their daily bath. The plants began growing again, and we did get a nice crop in the fall.

This year, beside Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin, I'm renewing my seed of Warsaw Buff Pie Pumpkin (another c. moschata) , an heirloom from Northern Indiana, and Dolma Kabak (c. pepo), a summer squash native to Turkey. Dolma Kabak, particularly, began to display the same symptoms and quickly I started the "water treatment," squishing squash bugs as I went. Within five days the little plants were squash bug free and beginning, again, to grow.

So, I want to share this with everyone I can. It really seems to work.

George

[macmex]

In a desperate situation I'd consider spraying with Neem oil. Neem won't outright kill them. You have to drench the bugs too. I doubt it would work very well if you only coat the plants themselves. Once they bugs have been hit with Neem, they usually stop eating within a couple of hours and die of starvation several days later.

[heavyhitterokra]

You can also use Pyganic-Pro on squash bugs. It's made out of chrysanthemum oil. The Pyganic-Pro is a liquid concentrate. You mix it with water and spray it on the bugs as you see them. It paralyzes them and they fall off and starve to death.

It smells like donuts cooking when you spray it.

[heavyhitterokra]

I'm so sick of squishing squash bugs!

I took advantage of today's untimely cool weather and irradicated my entire squash patch of every squash bug egg, and mating squash bug I could find. (There were thousands of them) eggs that is. I didn't find more than a couple dozen adults. it took quite a while to scratch off and crush all the eggs. In the meantime, I also picked a little over 100 pounds of overripe yellow squash to feed to my hogs. I've been so busy picking okra every day I had no energy left to pick squash too, so it has been neglected.

I think now that I've picked the plants clean of overripe squash and of squash bug eggs and of several mated squash bugs, they'll begin to flower and produce again. (Only time will tell).

[heavyhitterokra]

Bon,

Don't feel alone... As far as I know, tilling does not affect squash bugs much. I got crazy with it last year and planted who knows how many varieties of cool looking ornamental gourds, winter squash, and pumpkins, from seeds I had saved by gathering people's throw away Fall decor after Thanksgiving Holiday.

To avoid squash bugs, I plowed a piece of new ground, away from my garden, about 25' wide, by 200' feet long and had over 200 vines growing there, by mid-May. By mid-July, every one of my vines was plagued with hoards of squash bugs. By August, not a single one of them remained alive. I lost them all, even (OTCP).

Squash bugs didn't use to be such a problem. When I was a kid, growing up in the '70s, I grew pumpkins every year and won several entries in County and State Fairs. I had one big pumpkin, that went on to win the Tulsa State Fair, which qualified it to go on to the OKC State Fair, but the poor thing had been transported so many times, that it developed rot, from bruising and didn't make it to Oklahoma City.

One day, while on display at one of the fairs, a News Reporter from Channel 8 tried to pick it up for the camera and dropped it. (It weighed over 100 pounds and was round as a bowling ball). It was impossible to grip and carry. That's why we always placed it on top of a quarter folded, king size bed sheet for display. We would carry it from Fair to Fair by two people lifting the corners of the sheet. If it hadn't been aired on the evening news, I wouldn't have known how it got bruised so badly.

Point being, squash bugs didn't use to be such a problem as they are now. A person used to be able to pretty much just plant and forget. All I ever had to worry about was watering and weeding. Now, the squash bugs are so bad, that I even see their eggs on tomato plants and okra leaves. They are everywhere and will lay eggs on anything. I'll probably not plant any squash varieties at all this year.

[macmex]

Okay, I can' t believe that I hadn't already written about my "watering remedy" for squash bugs. This has to do with the fact that they usually do the most harm while the plants are still pretty small, killing them before they can start to sprawl. Also, I've only used it with c. moschata (butternut types), which are pretty resistant to begin with. Still, even with the c. moschatas I saw that the squash bugs would kill them if I didn't do something early on. 

Years ago, I had a planting of squash reach about "teacup size" and stop growing. As usual I was so busy that it was hard to get out there and do anything about it, but on this occasion I did go out there and inspect. They were yellowing and had stopped growing. I thought to water a bit, to see if that would help. So, I poured some water over one of the little plants and... YEOW! Up from the soil around it popped several squash bugs! They were hiding in the soil around the base of the plants.

So I went down the row pouring about 1 1/2 gallons of water on each little plant. When the squash bugs would come up spluttering for breath, I'd simply pinch them with my fingers, crushing them. I killed every bug I could find in short order. 

The next couple of days I went out there every afternoon and repeated this process until no more squash bugs surfaced. Once the squash plants started sprawling/crawling, I was able to relax my vigilance. The squash bugs seemed unable to catch up and do any harm. For that matter, after this point of "treatment" I hardly even saw a squash bug.

Last year was the worst year I've had with squash bugs. I had to do this water pouring treatment almost every day for about two weeks before the squash bugs gave up and let my plants grow.

I've been doing this for at least 7 years now. It really works. The only thing I am not sure about is if a c. pepo or c. maxima would outgrow the necessity of treatment the way it happens with a c. moschata. Even if they did, these other species would probably then be attacked by borers! Fortunately, the c. moschata and c. mixta (cushaws) are naturally borer resistant.