Squash Bugs

These are squash bug eggs.  Here is a pic of the hatched out adult buggers.   You don't want them to hatch out though.

We are very vigilant about checking the backs [and sometimes tops....and on occasion stems] of each squash leaf for these eggs.  When we find them, we pinch them off and squash them, put them in water and feed them to the chickens.  

The lighter golden they are, the fresher they are.   The darker they are, the closer to hatching they are.  

Check your plants every few [FEW!] days and you'll be able to control them.

Squash

The squash bed, looking back to the tomatoes.  The sweet potatoes are on the top left of the pic

This is totally a brag post. 

My squash bed is really gorgeous this year and it often isn't, so I pulled a few pics to show it off to you.

This has been a rough year for a lot of us and I've got friends whose squash has really suffered.   In addition to the heat, we regularly battle vine borers, squash bugs and poor soil.

Click on pic and look at it big.  Squash blossoms are cool.

I hate vine borers.   Things get up and going and gorgeous and I sprinkle my Dipel dust with bt in it religiously and then BAM, one afternoon one of the vines is all wilted.   Just one vine.   That's a dead giveaway that a vine borer got it.   At the base of the vine where it goes into the root, look for a little hole with sawdusty looking stuff around or below it.   That's where the little bastard went in.

When I find one, I sprinkle again right on the hole and I give the squash extra water.   I've had a bunch of vines that just grew bigger and fatter around the wound and kept on going.   God bless 'em.   I also make a point to sprinkle every plant generously for a while after that because where there's one borer, there are others just waiting for you to get all 'Oh, my squash is so awesome this year, it must be too hot for the borers', so they can prove you wrong.

Then there are the Squash bugs.

Squash bugs will take over if you let them.  If you see cute little eggs on your squash plants pinch them off.  Do not let them hatch.   Do not think they're all cute and that they'll probably be a gorgeous butterfly.   They are not butterfly eggs.  They are spawn of the devil.  I just pinch the leaf where the eggs are and pull the whole section out.   Yes, my squash leaves are holey.

If you see a squash bug, pick it off and kill it. Kill it now.  Personally, I like to shake them up and put them on a brick and step on them.  Look for cute little spidery things in groups with a whitish-blueish body and black legs.  Those are baby squash bugs.   Kill them.   Kill them now.   They're quick so just smack and push them hard with your hand or fold the leaf on them and squeeze.  Get as many as you can as fast as you can.  The baby ones are soft and easy to squish in your hand.

They wash off.  No eew-ing.   This is war.

Four different squashes in this bed. 

As for the soil problem, I amend with a lot of sand.

A lot, I tell you.

And we tucked in several wheel barrow loads of chicken dirt this year, too.   Ideally, in the fall, you burn off all the old debris, thus eliminating as many of the squash bugs as possible, and then you dig in some new manure and let it sit all winter.   Happy soil in the spring!

We never get tons and tons of actual squash.   We get miles of vines and several fruit from each.  I'm OK with that.   I imagine that if I fertilized right, I could cut down on the vine length and get more fruit.   The bees certainly helped increase our yield this year.   I've got some Queensland Blue, Golden Hubbard, an Italian butternut, and Omaha pumpkin, which is a tall elongated jack-o-lantern type of pumpkin.    Pics of all of those as they ripen.

Squash Bugs

Anasa tristis: squash bug

So yesterday I told you all about hornworms.    Well, let me tell you, hornworms are nothing compared to squash bugs. 

I really hate squash bugs.   They multiply faster than snowflakes and do just as much damage to my squash.  

The vigilance with which I guard my tomatoes from hornworms is nothing compared to the vigilance with which I watch for and guard my squash from squashbugs.   Nothing, I tell you.

There are only two ways to control this pest:   1.  by spraying awful chemicals that are illegal for me to have and that I wouldn't want anywhere near this place anyway.   or 2.  By hand picking and squishing the adults and by finding the eggs and taking them off and destroying them.  

It's war.

Unfortunately, my adversary is wily.  

It hides.   And it lays eggs everywhere.

OK.  Not everywhere.  Just on the underside of every squash leaf it can find.    I have a lot of squash leaves.   It's not like I can hide them.  Squash bugs find them all. 

See the dark triangle on the underside of this squash leaf?   It's a squash bug egg cluster.   I hunt for them every day.    Under every leaf. 

Yes. 

Every.   Day. 

Every.  Leaf.

Last year I didn't, and I had squash bugs everywhere.   It was awful.   This year I promised I wouldn't let it get that bad.   So I hunt them every day under every leaf.  

Yes, it's a pain.   But being overrun by squash bugs is a much worse pain.   

Once I find the egg clusters, I pinch off that part of the leaf.   It leaves a hole, but a hole is better than a herd of squash bugs.  

Baby squash bugs look like little spiders with blue-ish white bodies.   They hang out together, but scatter when disturbed.   Luckily, they're soft bodied and easy to squish.  [see photos of baby squash bugs]

This year they especially love my pumpkins.   Some of the leaves are getting very holey.

I drown the eggs in a bucket of water and then let the ducks eat them.  

New eggs are light gold.   The older the eggs are, the darker they get.   Eggs that are very dark brown are almost ready to hatch.   

These squash bugs were fornicating right out in the open.   

Eww.

If they had been allowed to finish [and they weren't], the female would have found a cozy place under the leaf in the V of a leaf vein and laid a bunch of eggs. 

Instead, they suffered a different fate.  

My chickens are happy. 

The very good news this year is that all of my vigilance has totally paid off.   I have way fewer squash bugs this year because I've been taking care of the eggs as I find them.