Squashing Squash Pests
Leave a commentJune 30, 2013 by rockroadfarm
I should begin by saying that I do NOT have a background in agriculture. Neither does my husband. Before taking the plunge to work the farm full time, he drove truck for a Salvation Army Thrift store, and I was a social worker. We decided to farm largely due to dissatisfaction with food and food systems. There was a bit (ok…quite a bit) of blind optimism that was part of the decision too. For any expert growers and farmers reading this- if you find any of our (mis)adventures laughable, that’s ok. We laugh at ourselves a lot too. Daily, in fact. Sometimes more.
The first few years we gardened, the Pest-Control Gods smiled on us. Heck, they practically gave us a high-five and a back rub. Not so much as an aphid nibbled on our plants. I had no idea how absurdly lucky we were.
Last year, after a few seasons of luck and generosity, the Pest-Control Gods stopped with the backrubs. Many of my beloved squash plants, which had always thrived in our garden, withered, wilted, and died. Having never dealt with a severe pest problem, I was horrified and confused. I knew my plants had adequate water and good soil. I hadn’t seen any signs that a fungus or mildew was attacking. The killer? Squash bugs and squash vine borers.
If you’ve never encountered these charming little bugs, consider yourself lucky. Squash Bugs are essentially little squash vampires. Even worse, any spot they’ve bitten on a leaf turns black and dies. Bitten fruit can develop rotted, sunken spots. There’s some debate, but some researchers believe that a toxin in the bug’s saliva causes this.
Squash Bug photo credit Flickr user garussell11
Squash Vine Borers are even worse. These charmers lay their eggs at the base of a squash plant. Upon hatching, the larvae eat their way into the stem of the plant and attack it from the inside out. The vine, unable to properly uptake water, wilts and eventually dies. The only way to stop the damage is to slit the vine open, remove the larvae, bury the vine at the affected area and hope it roots. Squash Vine Borers are actually a moth, but fly during the day. I don’t know if it’s because of the coloring, or because they’re so evil, but I can’t help but think of them as Darth Maul Moths. (See what I mean??)
After a winter with NO homegrown winter squash, and a summer where I DIDN’T eventually get sick of zucchini, I vowed revenge to take a more active pest management roll. We had done pretty well with maintaining healthy soil and focusing on bio-diversity, but it was time to step it up. Beginning to farm has meant experiencing a pretty sharp learning curve. In retrospect, I’m sure that there were signs of a population slowly building, but we just didn’t know enough to keep an eye out for the warnings. Lesson learned!
The first step in my plan was to look at our practices. “Squashland” is rotated to a new area in the garden every year. This year we tilled up a brand new area for Squashland. Both critters have quite a range, and can fly for up to half a mile. Crop rotation is always a good idea, but not enough in this case. I also made a couple seed selection compromises. Instead of the hollow-vined acorn squash that I love, we planted a solid-vined butternut squash. While not resistant to the Squash Bugs, borer larvae has no place to go!
We’ve taken to growing round zucchini (soooo good stuffed!), and I have a thing for heirlooms. Last year we grew Ronde De Nice Zucchini, a beautiful and tasty round French heirloom. The Squash Bugs thought they were pretty dang tasty too. Jerks. We grew Eight Ball Zucchini previously, and noticed that the fruits matured at a faster rate than the Ronde De Nice. Though it’s not an heirloom, we selected the Eight Balls this year in hopes that we can eat before the bugs do.
In Michigan, spring 2013 began a little slow and cool. We even had frost the first week of June! This was a good thing for my patience (or lack thereof), and our squash problems. We seeded squash a few weeks later than we normally do, hoping that we’d miss the mid-spring Squash Bug/Vine Borer breeding window. I’ll have to admit that I was feeling pretty optimistic when the end of June began to get close and there was no sign of the Squash Bugs.
Enter the Rose Chafer Beetles.
We first began noticing them in the hop yard as we were planting. Despite their name, Rose Chafer Beetles can be harmful to a large number of plants, including strawberries, corn, beans and more. They also love my hair- a friend helping me plant pulled seven off of me! The following day, we began noticing a couple in the garden, specifically on the squash (of course). I’ve taken to tossing pests into a bucket of soapy water. No squish, no goo, no stink. While picking the Rose Chafers, we began to notice Squash Bugs moving in. Just like the Rose Chafer Beetles, Squash Bugs are easy enough to pick, but where there are adults…there are eggs.
Squash Bug eggs are tiny (smaller than a seed bead) and sort of coppery in color. They’re typically found on the underside of the leaf, close to the bract in a tight cluster. As far as bug eggs go, they’re relatively easy to spot. We attempted to pick them off, but they stick pretty tight. There was some mild damage to a couple leaves we removed eggs from, but this is significantly less damage then would be done if they had hatched!
Though we’re seeing fewer and fewer, we’re still egg hunting every morning. It was during this egg hunt we found a couple breeding pairs of Squash Vine Borers. I had once read that companion planting radish with squash will deter the borers. This is a practice we’ve utilized for some time as it’s an efficient way to use the space between squash plants. As efficient as it is, I’m not sure if the Squash Vine Borers read the same book I did. One pair was mating on a radish leaf. We haven’t found any other sets yet, or any eggs, so it may just work. The jury is out on this one still. We’ll still be keeping our eyes out at the base of our plants for a tell-tale hole from the larvae.
Squash Viner Borer photo credit to Flickr user Mean and Pinchy
I’ve also read that Squash Vine Borers are attracted to the color yellow. Considering the bright yellow blooms on a squash plant, this makes sense. Some people have luck trapping Squash Vine Borers in a yellow pail filled with soapy water. So far this technique has not baited any bugs in our garden, but it is nice to have a pail of soap water handy!
I do not believe in mass pesticide application for the sake of prevention, as this is a good way to kill off good bugs and make bad bugs resistant. There are many pesticides on the market that are just as dangerous to human and environmental health as they are to pests. Fortunately, there are naturally derived alternatives that can be safer and just as effective when properly used. Knowing how quickly an infestation can spiral out of control, we decided that this was the appropriate time to get out the pyrethrin. Pyrethrin is a compound derived from chrysanthemums. It’s approved for organic vegetable production in the US, and most products state they can be applied to food up to the day of harvest. A note- just because it is approved for utilization in this manner does NOT mean we advocate doing this. We avoid spraying any part of the plant we intend to consume and would certainly discontinue spraying long before harvest.
Safer Brand Pyrethrin Spray Ingredient photo credit to Flickr user OSU Master Gardner
There are other steps that we were regrettably unable to take this year. Floating row covers are obviously a big deterrent to these pests. They are a great tool for season extension too, but unfortunately were not in our budget this year. Silver plastic mulch is also reported to be helpful in deterring a number of pests, but was also just not in the cards for us. We will continue to monitor our pest situation and will likely install at least floating row covers next season. If you’ve had luck managing squash pests (or not), and want to share your technique, we’d love to know about it! Share your experience below.
I’ll continue to update with results, good, bad or ugly. Keep your fingers crossed for our squash!
Oh, and I’m planting more zucchini, just in case. I want to be sure I can get sick of it this summer.
There are lots of options for dealing with these pests. If you’re finding them, here’s some more resources:
http://www.michiganorganic.msu.edu/uploads/files/31/squash%20bug%20and%20squash%20vine%20borer%20control.pdf
http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/factsheet/ent-120-08.pdf
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