S.O.S. (Save Our Squash!)

[willowgirl]

Has anyone else tried fighting the squash bugs ... with a Shopvac?

Not liking to spray a bunch of insecticides in the garden, I always resigned myself to losing my zucchini and summer squash halfway through the season. I usually started some seeds indoors to transplant so the harvest would be early and I'd get some fruits before the bugs knocked 'em out.

This year, the squash was doing so nicely that I decided to fight back! I noticed the infestation early, before the plants were too damaged, and started using the small canister vac to suck the bugs off the leaves. They're slow-moving and not hard to eradicate. I also started removing the egg clusters from the undersides of the leaves.

After only two days, I'm seeing a MARKED decrease in bugs! Hoping I can win this war!

(I'm also feeling pretty blessed that squash bugs are my biggest problem at the moment, lol.)

[Melissa]

Great idea!!! By the time my plants die I have usually had a good harvest. I do sometimes start a few new plants later in the season to last until frost.

[vickilynn]

Plant nasturtiums and/or icicle radishes around the squash when you plant them. They repel squash bugs.

My squash enemy is squash vine borers. I cover the plants until they start to blossom but have to remove for pollination. I try and spray the main stem where it comes out of the ground with neem, but that’s a task I hate because I have so many plants and they are large. It’s difficult, and I always miss some, especially with winter squash. I asked the local fruit and veggie market what they do, as they grow a huge amount of winter squash. They spray regularly with Seven in the evening to avoid killing bees. Not sure I want to use Seven. I’ve never used a pesticide like that before.

[mzgarden]

my bigger problem is the squash borer. I've tried wrapping the stems in aluminum foil and using insecticide soaps. By the time the squash bugs show up, my plants are pretty much already up the proverbial creek.

I'm going to add some essential oils (peppermint, calendula and rosemary) to my soap sprayer to see if I can mask the scent and save something, but I'm pretty sure this year is over for me.

[wolfmom]

Although I'm late to the discussion, maybe this will help someone next year.

I mix up:

6 garlic cloves, chopped fine
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 Tbsp cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp liquid dish soap

put the first 3 ingredients in a quart container, fill with warm water and let it sit overnight. Pour all through strainer, or liquify in a blender. add dish soap - put into a sprayer bottle. Dish soap is added last as it can foam.

I squish squash bugs with leaves when I first see them, then mix the insect spray. I spray heavily, along with my tomato, cucumber or cantaloupe plants - and have not had aphids or any bugs actually, in my garden since I've been using this. Sometimes it has to be reapplied after a heavy rain.

[jenn]

Squash borers: problem is they interrupt the link between the roots and the flowers/ squash fruit. So if you bury the vines every week or so, a small pile dirt over the vine every few feet, and try to water some there, the plant will set roots at those intervals all along the way and if the squash borers hit only SOME of the vines' parts you can still get some squash. Have also heard of cutting out the borer in a slit length wise but might also cut off the connection to the root.

[bowdonkey]

One of the things I'll be trying in my garden sprays this season is adding Xanthan gum to them. It's commonly used in non gluten bread recipes, but also can be used as a sticker in sprays. As always I haven't tried it yet. Hopefully it will make everything abit more rainproof. What will probably happen, the deer will find it irresistible and demolish everything it's sprayed on. Not sure about proportions or if it will mix well enough to work through a sprayer without clogging every 5 seconds. FWIW.