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I've got Stink bugs eating/ sucking the life out of my Zukes, Cukes, and Squash. I've replanted them twice now. I thought it was because they we getting too much sun (squash likes a bit of shade) so I made them some little shade tunnels. Lifted the tunnels up to check the plants, stink bugs everywhere!!! I've been trying to scoop up as many as I can find into a plastic container. Bang their little heads by shaking it up and then feeding them to the chickens!!!!! But I swear I've got more than the chickens can eat!!!
Are stink bugs the same as squash bugs, I know squash bugs stink?
I am having success in my battle w/ the squash bugs, I am drowning the adults, squishing the young, removing and squishing all eggs I find and spraying the base of the plants w/ tobacco tea. Plants are looking healthy and putting on more fruit, and there is a vast reduction in numbers of bugs.
Squash bugs are simply long stink bugs. There will be babies that are white with black legs and antennae...they are soft bodied at first and then develop the hard shell. Kassaundra has the natural method down pat.
In severe cases like with my 87 year old MIL's plants today we had to resort to an insect killer made by Spectracide. It is called triazicide. We don't like to use chemical sprays in our own garden because they are broad spectrum and kill beneficials as well as bad bugs. She doesn't have chickens and had squash plants that were covered in hundreds of baby bugs as well as thousands of eggs. Rather than lose all her plants she asked us to spray her garden. We sprayed mixing 6 tbs to 2 gallons of water following the directions on the container.
Triazicide is Gamma-cyhalothrin and there is a wait period on picking vegetables that are sprayed. We waited to spray until the bees had finished their pollinating and picked all squash 3 inches and longer. Since squash bugs also like cucumbers, we harvested those too. We picked off or cut out leaf sections containing eggs and killed as many parent bugs as could be found. Then we sprayed the plants throughly starting at the base of each plant and working up to the tops. Parent bugs come to the top where they can be picked off and killed. Within an hour there were hundreds of soft bodied baby bugs littering the ground under the plants.
The benefit of Triazicide is that the liquid dries on the stems and leaves and protect the plant from future infestations for up to six weeks. Bugs that suck juices from the plants will be killed, but bees coming to newly opened flowers are not harmed.
This is the only spray product that we have found that kills squash bugs and is the only chemical spray we would use.
Effective natural sprays include Neem oil, Bt, milkey spore, Pyloria and SoapShield....but these are not very effective with squash bugs.
