squash bugs

[archeryrob]

How do you all deal with squash bugs? I have a neighbor with fruit trees and I was told it makes them worse when fruit tress are near. I love zucchini but one year planted 18 and was lucky if I got 12 before they all died. I tried seven and dusting them. I tried duck tape backwards on my hand to pick eggs and young bugs off the plants.

I gave up, it seemed easier to just buy them. Now I got friends growing them and they can't eat eat what they grow as they have so many. It's ridiculous how they destroy plants if I plant them. Anyone else solve this?

I don't like using pesticides and hand scouring plants every day is annoying also.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I assume you are talking about squash bugs, not squash vine borers. Two totally different things that are often confused. Squash bugs are a relative of the stink bug. They do not eat anything solid, they suck juices out of the plant so treating with any poison they have to digest doesn't work. They are not going to eat it if it is on the surface of the plant or fruit. The only poison that works on them is a contact poison, the kind that has to get on their bodies to kill them. But since they are so good at hiding and are so quick to run away, I don't have any success with a contact poison either.

Squash bugs can spread a wilting disease that will kill your squash even if you don't have enough for them to suck the plant dry.

I've tried many of the natural ways, looking for eggs and leaving stuff for them to hide under laying n the ground so you can concentrate them and kill them. Did not work. I tried planting nasturtiums and white radishes near them as a deterrent. Did not deter a thing.

I read that lemon squash were resistant to squash bugs so I planted a few of those. They did last a week or two longer than the other regular squash but resistant does not mean immune.

I tried not growing anything the squash bugs like for two years, then planted squash. Did not work.

Guineas are supposed to enjoy eating squash bugs. I've never tried guineas so don't know how effective they are or if there are any other problems with guineas in the garden.

I tried planting Trumboncino squash. That is a vining squash that spreads everywhere, a trellis is a good idea. The squash can get pretty huge but if you grab them pretty young I think they are really good. The squash bugs did not bother mine, at least not enough to kill them. The only way I could enjoy squash for much of the season was to grow Tromboncino.

 

[archeryrob]

Yes, the ones that spread the wilt. I am not a huge fan of other squash. I will eat it, but I love zucchini and these guys devastate it and I can't control them.

The babies

The eggs

 

[Acre4Me]

Good luck. I had a terrible time with striped cucumber beetles last year...they were very hard to control, so I can sympathize with the frustration. I don't recall seeing squash beetles, but all I grew were a few butternut squash plants. This year I added some yellow crookneck squash to the garden, so we will see what happens with those.