Chicken Coop Cam
Goat Stall Cam
The zucchini looks like it’s doing great this year – right?
It looks so nice and lush – but at a closer look, there are squash bugs hiding in there!
What are squash bugs? Well, they’re brownish black, about 3/4″ – 1″ long, and they feed on vining crops like squash, pumpkins, and melons. As you can see, they cause the plant to wilt and eventually die. They’re generally found wherever these vining crops are grown. Ugly, aren’t they?
Organic controls for squash bugs include planting other varieties that repel them (obviously I didn’t do enough of that) such as marigold, nasturtium, and radish. Garden sanitation and weed control are important as they tend to hide beneath foliage; but once you find them, handpick all the insects (or destroy the entire stalk in the picture to the left) and eggs. The eggs are dark red and are laid in clusters on the leaves. Crop rotation (see Crop Rotation – A Simple System) is also important to help keep these guys under control.
The good news is that they do tend to cluster, so if you’re inspecting your garden regularly you can usually catch and handpick these before they do cause an otherwise healthy plant to die. Now that I’ve removed the infested leaves, the zucchini should be fine.
Carin- I’ve found that zucchini blossom rot usually only happens to the young fruit that hasn’t been fertilized well enough to grow. To prevent this and increase productivity, take a small paintbrush (kid size is fine) and collect pollen from the male flowers and then dust female parts with it. I’ve found that morning is best time to do this because flowers are open and fresh – later in day they often wilt. Good luck.
When watering roots give the vines a spray. The adults and any hiding under vines will start crawling up the stems. Good time to catch. Babys love living under the dead crincled leaves at end of stems.
the benefical plants listed help along with rotation. Over watering will cause the baby squash to be mushy and furry
I also have some bugs of this sort on my squash. I picked off several leaves that were infested, but the eggs in my case were black. I also have something causing the ends of my zucchini to rot. Do you know what causes this? The seem to rot from the blossom end.
Oh, that picture makes my skin crawl!
Last year I lost everything to bugs and infections (which could have been brought by the bugs….). This year I’m losing more to mammals.
I have a really determined groundhog who can climb chicken wire and likes to eat squash. And a vole that destroyed my brassicas.
But I have a spectacular cucumber crop! I’m getting 6-8 per day right now. It likes where it is planted this year way more than it liked it last year.
I agree on it making your skin crawl, my first instinct after finding them is to run…… Congrats on the cucumber crop! Ours is super slow getting started this year.
Or do what I do, bribe your kids to pick and squish! Then feed to the Chickens. I hate squash bugs, They killed all my squash in 1 week last year, the Buggers!
Great idea, the chickens will love them – and I’ll be happy they’re enjoying them.