Squash Bugs

Here is information on squash bugs and getting rid of them.

Here is a squash bug I found on the pumpkin plant growing in the compost bucket.  Squash bugs have a needle like mouth (like a mosquito) They suck the nutrients out of the plant.  They can suck it out of any part of the plant, but I find them mostly at the base of the plant.

This is what I use to pick them up with.  I'm not about to touch them, so I take Hubby's pliers and pick them off the plants.
This is actually squash bug number two.  I only found one easily, so after I eliminated the first one I pored a two gallon bucket full of water into the compost bucket with the pumpkin plant and three more raced up the vines.

Here are a group of squash bug eggs.  They are usually where the veins meet on the bottom side of the leaves.

I tried to smash them with the pliers, but didn't get them all.  For some reason I can uses my bare fingers to smash the eggs, but not the bugs no matter what their size.

Another leaf with more eggs.  If the leaf has clusters of eggs at every intersection of veins I will sometimes just cut the entire leaf off and toss it into the trash.

This dead leaf and stock were lying on the ground, but still attached to the plant. I just pulled the entire thing off.

Check everywhere that is out of sight, this part of the plant has another plant leaning against it, so the eggs were hidden.

This plants leans sideways in the pot and this side is against the soil.  Search everywhere and smash those eggs.

I did not find any baby squash bugs.

Now for other ways to get rid of squash bugs:

This is a cucumber plant.
I put copper around the base of the plants.  I got a long length of sticky backed copper from my dad.  It is about 30 years old.  There is no sticky left on it, but the paper is dried to the back. I have no idea where you would find something like this now, especially at the current price of copper.

Here is a Blue Hubbard squash plant.
As you can see I put the copper strips very close to the base of the plants.  For some reason squash bugs will not cross over the copper.
Before I got the copper I tried several rows of pennies around the base of the plant and that did nothing.  So if you use pennies you need a lot.  My copper strips are about 3" wide.

Diatomaceous Earth can be sprinkled on the ground where any pesky bugs are. Diatomaceous earth is made from the fossilized remains of tiny aquatic organisms.  It is very fine like a powder, but actually has sharp edges all around it.  It causes insects to dry out and die by absorbing the oils and fats from the cuticle of the insect's exoskeleton. Its sharp edges are abrasive, speeding up the process. It remains effective as long as it is kept dry and undisturbed.
I got the information on Diatomaceous earth  HERE if you want more detail about it.
Diatomaceous earth works best on soft bodied insects.  The babies are soft bodied, but they develop a hard shell as they turn into adults.

Duct tape made into a loop around your fingers with the sticky side out can be used to pick up a large group of baby squash bugs quickly.  It doesn't work as well on the eggs that are next to the veins on the leaves and it can also pull off a chunk of leaf.

Dawn dish detergent added to water can be used to spray the eggs and baby squash bugs.  In a two quart bottle put no more than 1/2 inch of dish soap and the rest of the bottle filled with water and spray until the eggs and babies are soaked.  Spray early in the morning or late in the evening.  If the leaves turn brown where they were sprayed it is, because it was too hot and the leaf burned or there is too much detergent in the bottle.

You can also put damp rolled up sections of newspaper next to the plants and they will go under or in the paper.  This works really good for earwigs.  They go in there when it is dark.  First thing in the morning you have to get outside, pick up the paper and throw it in the trash.  If you don't get outside early enough they will have all left the newspaper.  This is my least favorite non-chemical way.

Insecticidal soap can be sprayed on them.  This works best of soft bodied bugs too.  You can make your own insecticidal soap, but my understanding is that the harder your water is the less effective the soap will be.  Someone give it a try and let me know your results.

If you are really desperate and feel like they have gotten beyond your control you can use Sevin.  I personally do not use this product.  You must read the label very carefully.  Produce sprayed with this product have a minimum number of days you must wait after spraying before the produce can harvested.  That is creepy to me.  The product does work though.

The best and easiest way to get rid of squash bugs is by having toads.  The toads will eat them all.  To keep a toad or two around you must have a cool, dry, damp, dark place for them to go to at all times.

More on Fighting the Critters

Here are the strawberries covered with netting.  One gallon pots partly filled with soil are at the outside edged and in the center of the strawberries to hold the netting up high enough to keep the birds out.  Rocks are along the edges to hold the netting down.

Here is an overall picture of the garden.  Most everything is covered with something to keep the birds out.

This is the beets and lettuce.  The front half is the lettuce that was planted almost 2 weeks ago.

This is the spinach planted the same time as the lettuce that the birds ate.  There were only two screens at that time and they got in between them.  Replanted the spinach about a week ago.

The quail are digging holes around this pumpkin plant that is never going to get big enough to produce a pumpkin.  The plant was partly out of the ground so now there is a broken pallet and rocks around it.

The left side of the tomatoes and tomatillas have rocks between them.  The birds were making holes and the water wasn't staying in the wells around the plants.

 Here is the right side of the same bed as above.

 This bed has the pallets on it to keep the cat out of it.  Soon my garlic will be planted here.

 Mixed lettuce and Mesclun covered with screen.  The pallet is covering the unplanted edge of this bed and helping to hold the screen off of the plants.  Bird protection again.

Here are the Brussels sprouts and the broccoli that is bagged to save its seeds.  Pallets to keep the birds out.  The screen is over the garlic that some critter pulled a few out of the ground and ate a bite out of the tops of the bulbs.

Pallets covering the compost buckets to keep the cat from using it as a bathroom.  There is a tomato plant growing in one of the compost buckets.  A volunteer.

I have been looking for this copper for several year.  It was something my dad had leftover from his construction days.  I have heard that squash bugs don't like to walk over copper.  I tried putting pennies around my squash plants in the past, but it didn't seem to do any good.  This is about 3 inches wide and seems do be doing the trick.  I found one squash bug on the outside edge of one of the plants since the copper has been in place.  I did check for bugs daily and used a pair of pliers to pick them off and squeeze them with.  I also scraped off all eggs I found.  Now I check every 3 or 4 days and have only found that one.

Another squash plant with copper under it.  This is supposed to be a year with an abundance of squash bugs.  At least that is what I heard from the manager of one of the local nurseries.

Am I seeing things?  A critter that can stay!  Something must be wrong.  I guess this Praying Mantis doesn't know this garden has been the home for unwanted guests this year.  He stays in with the beets.  This is the second time I have watered and chased him up onto the screen.  Welcome Praying Mantis!

BACK TO THE UNWANTED GUESTS:

I have been spraying all the soil with white vinegar every two or three days.  It has been keeping the cat away fairly well.  It takes 2 quarts to get enough of the vinegar smell to do the job.  I have to spray it heavier in the more sandy areas.  This cat is determined to use my yard and keeps trying new places to use as a litter box.  I am determined to keep it away.  I WILL WIN!

The cat finally has no place to go to the bathroom under the trees.  We have bought five loads of  crushed rock and hauled about 5 or 6 load of river rock from Cindy's yard.  I can't thank Cindy enough for all of the rock.  We can only haul 1/2 yard of rock each trip.  Almost done.  Still need one more load of crushed rock and one or two more loads of river rock.

 Another view of the rock under the trees.  On the left edge is where I have just started a border of rock.

An up close view.

I have some decorative white wire fencing that my husband tied some green plastic fencing material to.  Several years ago I used this to go around the asparagus bed for protection.  The ground is packed down fairly well, but I found where the cat had tried to go to the bathroom in the the middle of the path so I put the fencing down and separated the two things where the walkway is wide.

A close-up of the picture above.

An open area between the riverbed and the shed is now covered with chicken wire. This was the cat's first choice of places to use as a litter box.  This is where the kids like to dig and play also.  Wish I would have thought of the chicken wired months ago instead of days ago.  I have noticed the bird tracks go along the edge of the wire now.  Guess they don't like it either.

This is the cat's second favorite place to use as a litter box.  It doesn't seem to like the steep slants.  Thank goodness for something.  Still spraying the vinegar in the places not covered with wire. 

On the hill I am slowly spreading out the pine needles that fall off of our pine trees.  Someday the entire hill will have a thick layer of needles.  It keeps the cat away, but not the birds.

 Another close-up view of pine needles.

 Another area with pine needles.  Can you see the hole dug by the quail?

A close-up of the hole the quail dug to sit in.

 HERE BIRDY BIRDY BIRDY.  Just got a quail trap made Monday.  Not sure how long it will take for the quail to be willing to go in it.  I sure hope Curt wants more quail on his property!

The next project is covering the Elderberry bushes.  The birds have eaten all of them for the past 12 years.  Now it is my turn to have some.  My husband has an idea for making a cover.  The berries are on the outside edges of the plant, so just putting a net over the bushes doesn't keep the birds out.  We are going to build some kind of structure to go around the bushes and hold the netting away from the plants.

Tiny green berries are starting to form.  The birds will start eating them very soon.  They don't wait for them to turn purple.  They eat them all green.

This Sedum has very few leaves.  I don't know if the quail, dove, or both are eating this.  The Sedum in the background is dead.  I think it didn't have a chance, because it was a new transplant that was constantly having holes dug around it and the water never stayed next to the plant.

This Hens and Chicks keeps hanging on even though the birds constantly eat it.

 I hope this Hens and Chicks lives.  I finally put rock around it to keep the birds from making holes that kept the water running away from the plant.  Going to get some wire and cover the Hens and Chicks and Sedum.  Oh yeah, another project.  I'm sure I need even more!