Squash bugs

[beth]

Help....
Does anyone know how to kill squash bugs?
I have tried picking adults,nymphs and eggs off.
I have also moved my squash out of my main garden,
but they found them again.
Lost all of my squash plants last year. I would really like some squash this year!
I am squashless in Shannon

[GreenZone]

Beth,
Squash bugs haven't ever been a big problem for me, but another person at Baker Creek reccommends the following:

Hand-pick 'em. I assume there's too many for that to work in your garden.

Diatomaceous earth. Use food-grade, dust the undersides of the leaves as well as the tops. Also leave a ring of the dust on the soil's surface around each plant. And keep it off the blossoms, so you don't harm the pollinators (bees)that are necessary for the plants to set fruit. Repeat about weekly, or after it rains. It takes a little time to see results, but does work.

PyGanic, a Fertrell product. It's a pyrethrum that's approved by OMRI. Expensive, maybe, but it's supposed to work.

Hope this help --Randel

[AShadyElm]

I'm usually fairly tolerant of pests to a point but these critters drive me batty. We have a market garden in which we have over 200 squash plants and I broke down and bought some Pyganic (it is expensive - try PlanetNatural's website). I just sprayed it tonight and they seemed to at least be knocked down and I left them for dead. The trick is that they are quick and the spray needs to get UNDER the leaves as that's were they hang out. I'll update on the success or failure of this procedure. I read some things on the internet saying once the leaf canopy had closed, sprays were pretty ineffective unless you could get under it with the spray.

Some ideas for next year - I noticed they are worse on my cucumber (even though some sources say they don't like them) that are planted in IRT mulch - I wonder if they are hiding under the plastic like they would with boards? Last year we moved our garden to the field and we didn't have a single one - apparently they "found" our plot now. I notice that with pests many times if you take a break from planting a particular host crop for a year it breaks their cycle and you might get a year pest free. Just a thought - we need to have as many saleable squash and cucumbers as possible so I'm trying to keep tabs on it.

Good luck:)
P.S. I do also handpick them when I see them and squash their eggs as I walk through the garden since I can't stand the critters. I'm not squeamish but their is something about squash bugs that "BUG" me. :)

[TastyofHasty]

We now have no zucchini, no yellow squash, and no cucumber plants. All rotted away in deathly grey heaps on the ground!! And I have made the acquaintance of "squash bugs." Interestingly, the loofah, planted right next to the cucumbers, is untouched (so far) and growing.

LAST year, we had one big zucchini plant that gave us more zucchini than we could use, cucumbers ... no such squash bugs THEN. I guess you-all are right, now they have "found" us. :mad: Will have to prepare a bed someplace hidden away for squash crops next year. And be more vigilant about squash bug eggs.

[cReAtIoN gRoAnS]

The pyganic thing is the only thing that I know of...

Gardens alive has a couple of products that are "organic" that they say will work...I am trying them now.....their are thousands of them that have invaded me....but so far I am ahead of them and would like to keep it that way....one thing you need to do is keep picking off the eggs!!! Do not let them get ahead of you that way....I have picked hundreds off so far...

one of the older threads on this sight has info on squash bugs using coffee and soap....just click back a few pages and read the posts on squash bugs...you might try that.

Hope that helps!

Chad