Growing yellow squash up and loved it, the vine borers took over. Dead. Last year, I put cotton balls with Vicks vapor rub around and on the main stems. Paperclipped the balls and refreshed the Vaseline. At least 20 squash on 1 plant. The untreated plant 4 ft away only 2. Trying again this year.
I just want to say thank you. Yours is the first video that showed me what those little eggs looked like and that I could get them off. I went out and got ELEVEN off of my 5 plants! Plus I found one spot that was barely mushy. I am pretty sure I prevented something from burrowing in. Thank you SO MUCH!
Excellent video. Thank you. I didn’t cover my plants but will do that next year. I am pruning and trying to trellis them this year. I used a small crochet hook last year to dig the borers out of plants when I saw the frass . I gained a couple of weeks in a few of my squash plants doing that.
This is the best video I have seen yet on the vine borers, the explanations images of how the bug looks like, how the eggs and vine borers look like, what to look out for, how to prune the zucchini plant and the 4 steps. I planted 8 crooked neck squash and all eight have the squash borers. When I found out I went after the borers with a tweezer. Last year I killed the vine borers in my butternut squash and it worked. This year I inspect every day and hope that my zucchinis will survive. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. I did not know how the bug or eggs looked like.
Thank you for sharing! Now I know what their eggs look like. I didn't get a harvest of my zucchini last year and I didn't know why. This is very helpful!
This was so helpful. Thanks for showing us what it actually looks like and what we need to watch out for. I may be a little less scared to find an egg now 🤣
Thank you, nice vid... I won't let them win.. I have lost most of my zukes so far. But I am fighting. I like the idea of pruning. I will do that now. I have found another way. I plant a lot of Tromboncino and Cocuzzo. Bugs rarely bother them and they are very similar in taste to zukes. They are true vines and grow many feet and produce many fruit.
Glad you liked the video :) Great advice about the “zucchini like” vines. We haven’t tried them yet but they are definitely on the list. Keep up the good fight!
Great video. I have noticed the little rust colored eggs laid on the leaves of the plant very, very often. The leaves are shaped like a funnel and the egg tends to roll down to the branch the leave is on and perhaps onto the ground near the main plants main stem. The SVB moth in the northeast is similar. It is black and the wing tips are black with two orange strips across each black wing. I have seen them on thyme and blueberry bushes too, not just vines.
I start my squash indoors and plant in progressively larger containers until they are strong. I also find that pyrethrum around the main stem is a good preventative.
@@TheGardenFamily Yes. I start them indoors in a shallow yogurt cup, and then transplant them into progressively larger containers until they are rather large. I know that it is not proper protocol with these plants, but I have found that doing this with squash, eggplant, and other very susceptible plants makes them a bit stronger against the bugs, which also seem to prefer younger plants. Also, where I live, borers are generally less active after mid-July, so waiting until then to transplant them into the garden. A couple of doses of spynosin or pyrethrum on the stems after planting also seems to act as a deterrent.
@@scottlewis6611 yes, I know many people say not to transplant but we haven’t had many problems transplanting squash. Never kept it inside that long however! Good strategy if you have the space!
Very helpful! May be too late for my plants.. Glad to understand that they also stay in the soil as I have a second wave of smaller plants and I’ll avoid planting them where they can get eaten too!
@@TheGardenFamily Do you have to hand pollinate because you are starting the plants under cover? I heard you may have to do this because pollinators can't get to them when under cover.
@@matthewsummers4402 we keep them under cover until they start producing female flowers. This is obviously a lot easier with a zucchini than a vining plant like a pumpkin. For direct sown plants usually they are under cover for about 5 weeks or so. Once they are producing fruit we uncover them but if you wanted you can hand pollinate and keep them under cover the whole season
Thank you so much for this video! I go to war with those little $&$!# bugs every year and I always lose! But I won't give up! I will try these suggestions and maybe this year, I'll win and get some zucchini! One suggestion I have that I have found helpful is when I see the Vine borer eggs or the squash bug eggs, I hold a flame to them with a lighter. It kills the egg (and they pop like little popcorn kernels--so very satisfying!) And it does minimal damage to the plant. I look forward to more content from this channel!
ooh, haven't tried the lighter yet but gosh that sounds satisfying! Glad it was helpful, thanks for watching and good luck with the war this gardening season!
Hi! The problem with squash vine borers is the timing of any insectacide. They hatch and quickly burrow inside the plant so conventional spraying doesn't work well. Some say injecting BT into the hollow stem works, haven't tried it. If it works for you this year let us know!
Grow Rampicante squash. It is resistant to vine weevil. I grew it next to other squashes that succumbed to the weevil and It just kept putting out squash all summer. It does have a huge vine which I grew on a hog wire tunnel.
We have never had this problem (never found any underneath the row cover). We are pretty good at killing all the ones in our garden but you could always rotate crops. Thanks for watching!
I wouldn’t recommend it. Splitting the main stem is a last ditch effort and causes significant damage to the plant. But you could always plant an extra one and give it a try! Thanks for watching :)
Whoa what is that plant in front of the plant in the beginning? Lol. I just planted pumpkins for the first time in my life a month or two ago and they’ve been doing great. Till today I noticed leaves suddenly yellowing. Started looking into and found out about vine borers. After reading and then inspecting my plant I’ve got some borers so I started digging in the holes that I could find and pulling the larvae out. Is it too late to save the plant? Or can it come back? I’ve got one pumpkin on the plant that’s about the size of a softball. I had no idea about these borer pieces of S#%T being my first time doing anything other than peppers. If I put more dirt up the stalk to cover the part at the base that they ate through would that help or do anything? I was so excited to grow my own pumpkins for Halloween and I think it’s done for now.
We have not had problems with squash vine borers and cucumbers but growing vertically and pruning cucumbers definitely helps you inspect for cucumber beetles!
What I’d like to find is a list of SVB susceptible plants. I grow acorn, butternut, spaghetti and Cushaw squashes, watermelon, canteloupe, ananas and pumpkin. Unfortunately I’ve just seen this video and wonder if I can still grow them vertically without damaging the plants which have become quite large near the end of July. Anyone have a link to such a list? I’m also searching for one. Thank you for your very helpful tips. I suppose I’ll need to inject with BT, but not looking forward to it as I have numerous plantings and I also farm and raise pigs, chickens and rabbits. Not much time.
This video scared the crap out of me. I’m a first time gardener and I was in the garden with my son today and he said “what’s that? It looks like a wasp but it’s not a wasp” I didn’t know what it was. I tried to kill it but it got away. It was exactly that red thing you showed and I’ve never seen it before. I scared now.
@@morelandcapitalgroup8694 zucchini like hot weather. But if you plant now under cover you likely will still get a harvest depending on when your first frost is… We have another young zucchini planted under cover right now just in case our current ones succumb to these guys despite our efforts, you can see the plants on our walk through video we posted today!
I learned a great deal about the dreaded vine borer via this video. I learned I have been fighting those turds for sometime now. I just didn’t know it. I have been picking those little red dots off my zucchini for a good bit. Now thanks to your video I know what the moth looks like that has been laying all those eggs. They’ve attacked my crook neck squash and zucchini. This is my first garden. The squashes are still bearing fruit but it’s been a challenge. What you didn’t review was your method for getting rid of the borers once they make it to the major root. Any info to share about ridding the plant of mature borers?
Glad this was helpful! I will have to do a follow up video on how to remove them once they are inside. It involves plant surgery which combines two of my favorite things! (I’m a surgeon in my regular job). Happy gardening!
Hi Carmen! It’s a lightweight spun fleece. There are multiple options but I have purchased both from Johnnys seeds as well as Amazon. I like the lighter weight ones. Thanks for watching!
Thank you so much for this video! My garden was decimated with them this season. I’ve already pulled up about 13 squash, cucumber and cantaloupe plants and have several more than I’m waiting to see if they’re salvageable. Once they’re inside the plant, is there anything that can be done? Or should I go ahead and start over? I’m in North Texas so starting over at this point wouldn’t be the end of the world, just very frustrating and time consuming.
I'm north texas too, last year I just couldn't keep up with them. So I made sure I buried the vines at multiple points so the damage didn't kill the entire plant long enough to reap a harvest.
Some one suggested taking a small knife and open the vine and dig them out, i did unfortunately it was too late for the pumpkins, but I was able to save my cucumber who was also been attacked, at the vines i dig two out and he said to pack it with soil, I did so far so good keeping my fingers crossed, i will probably sow one pumpkin seed the next time instead of three ,to see all those dried up vines with nice size pumpkin's on them was heart breaking
I had a terrible infestationlast year. Out of 10 squash plants I only harvested 6 zucchini. I am so frustrated but this year I'll try Bt and diatomaceous earth. I will also try your tips. Does the cover prevent sunlight and how does that affect growth?
Hi Tricia! The cover probably reduces sunlight by 20% or so. I haven't seen any affect on growth. The main problem is pollinators can't get to the plants. So we usually cover them until they are producing female flowers then remove the cover. Good luck this year!
It's my first year attempting to grow yellow squash. If they go south it will also be my last. Way too much work to ensure against a vine borer caused calamity.
It’s a hard fight to fight. Keeping them under row covers until they are full grown is super helpful and doesn’t take much effort! Wishing you the best of luck 👍
I don't know what to do. I pulled off 15ish eggs off of multiple plants a few days ago....just looked today and there's about a hundred eggs. I can't possibly get all of them. They are at the base, below the dirt. Everywhere. This is the 4th year.
Argh, hate these things! At least now you know what to look for and can halt their life cycle. I like growing my zucchini under cover until you see female fruit as one option. The more you can learn and educate your neighbors the less of these will be swarming around!
@@TheGardenFamily Yes, my husband built me a screen cage a few years ago. It stayed behind when we moved, but it was most effective. I guess we're going to have to go that route again. Thankfully, this is Central TX and I've got time to get another crop going.
Hello, sorry I don't know your name. I am Ross Murphy of Shawnee, Kansas, a gardener with much useful experience I manage a three-acre Community Garden and 15 to 18 families grow much of their fresh food here. First, the Roly-polies. Don't ever revile them; welcome them. They are extremely beneficial to your garden. They never eat any growing plant, what they do is consume garden wastes, even wood, digest it and return it to your garden as fertilizer. Their power and usefulness can hardly be imagined. Let me give you a good example. Some years ago, when my family were growing up here, we had a small family flock of hens, and a rooser, a real necessity. Neighbors wanted to buy eggs so gradually our flock grew to 250, plus 15 roosters. One day, I truck rolled by carrying ground up tree trunks and branches, probably ten tons of wood chips. I ran out and stopped the driver. He had to drive to Leavenworth to dump this in the landfill. I told him he could dump in my garden, which was like rubies or emeralds as he had a round trip of 70 miles. The next day he had an equal amount, two gigantic mounds of the wood. As our hens ran free-range, I put chicken wire fence around them Soon the first roly Polies arrived and went to work, eating the wood. The population grew to thousands, then probably to millions. They ate every day, all freezing winter too. At the end of two years the mounds of wood chips was reduced to three feet high of nitrogen, phosphorous and Potassium, the three elements of fertilizer. I didn't have to pay them anything. Now, that spring, I took down the chicken fence and let the chickens go at it. They like to scrape and scratch and they did this so they could feast on the roly-polies. This reduced my chicken feed costs greatly and the eggs were wonderful! They scattered that fertilizer over a huge area and I didn't have to pay them anything. That amount of very rich fertilizer would have cost me dearly at Home Depot, and the stuff at HD is 80 per cent filler. Next the squash vein maggot. The eggs are laid by a pretty dark fly, about half an inch. They have dark bodies and orange swept-back wings. They start in as soon as your squash, of whatever variety, first get their leaves. So you have to act quickly to stop them before they lay their tiny eggs. The eggs hatch and the larvae begin to chew their way into the stems, at ground level. They enter the stem when they are the size of fly maggots. At this time you can see their excreta at the bottom of the stem; it looks like fine sawdust. At this moment you have a chance to kill them, by taking a long needle and stabbing it around in the stem, killing some of them. This is only chancy though, so now I will tell you the exact, perfect, never fail way to destroy them. I am the man with THE PLAN I think I am the only person who knows this and now there will be ALL OF YOU. About 20 or so years ago, in the German state of Thuringia, was discovered an amazing thing: I was a bacteria, a microbe, that if it were eaten by a corn ear worm, for example, the bacteria, upon reaching the gut, starts to multiply, dividing and dividing again, you've seen movies of cell division before, I feel sure. They multiply so fast, with so many that the will burst the stomach of the worm grub and destroy it. What a brilliant discovery! Now you can buy it from any garden shop or hardware store, in powder or liquid form. I have used it for years and it is very effectived. So I bought some of the liquid and painted the stems of the squash plants so the larvae would eat it and die. This was only partly successful, because maybe the grub didn't eat it, or the rain washed it away. And then I had my serendipitous moment, my creative solution. Here it is: When the leaves start on your squash, go to your pharmacy and buy---I think it is size 50--hypodermic needle. The price is about fifty cents. Not the kind for injecting insulin, the needle won't push the watery powder through. With the larger needle you can suck up some of the BT, bacillus thuringiensis, in liquid form. Inject a small amount of the bacillus at the bottom of the stem of your plants. You only have to do this once; the bacillus will take up residency inside the stem. Now, when the grub eats his way into the stem, before her ever gets through into the interior, BT wiill overwhelm him and kill him ded, ded, ded. BT is harmless to people, and it will never move as high as the blossoms or the squash the plant produces.No aluminum foil, no panty hose, no band-aids or stretch adhesive needed at all. It is harmless to bees and other pollinators. I have had many careers in my lifetime: Newspaper Editor of a Hollywood weekly newspaper; computer diagnostician and repairman, in Los Angeles; electrical engineer in a great laboratory in Upstate New York, Inventor; one of the top IBM computer salesmen in America, professional, award-winning free--lance writer, business columnist for Washington Post/Newsweek for six years. I also invented a garden weeding tool now in use, not only in the US, but also in five foureign countries. You hold it in your hand and it kills weeds forever. I also invented a little circuit and some microprogramming that will make a gigantic computer system includiing all its outside devices, diagnose itself in less that half a minute. My invention is used in every pc computer system in the world, more that three billion, plus now in every cell phone. The royalties paid to IBM for the use of my circuit has earned three billion dollars for IBM. I wish I could continue to tell you about how to rid your garden of the Squash Stinkbug, but enough for now. Ross Murphy, Shawnee, Kansas, suprwedr@sbcglobal.net.
ugh! Sorry to hear about your plants. The foil on the stem works to keep the initial eggs from being laid but they will just come back and lay eggs on the larger stem / leaves after. That's why we keep ours covered completely until female flowers show up.
It would be absolutely impossible for me to spend that much time looking over my entire plant for their tiny eggs. I simply spray them weekly with spinosad and permethrin.
Growing yellow squash up and loved it, the vine borers took over. Dead. Last year, I put cotton balls with Vicks vapor rub around and on the main stems. Paperclipped the balls and refreshed the Vaseline. At least 20 squash on 1 plant. The untreated plant 4 ft away only 2. Trying again this year.
Interesting technique! Give us an update after this season!
I just want to say thank you. Yours is the first video that showed me what those little eggs looked like and that I could get them off. I went out and got ELEVEN off of my 5 plants! Plus I found one spot that was barely mushy. I am pretty sure I prevented something from burrowing in. Thank you SO MUCH!
So glad it was helpful! Half the battle is just knowing what to look for!
Excellent video. Thank you. I didn’t cover my plants but will do that next year. I am pruning and trying to trellis them this year. I used a small crochet hook last year to dig the borers out of plants when I saw the frass . I gained a couple of weeks in a few of my squash plants doing that.
Covering them early is quite a good system! We have also done some surgery one them as well. Very tough little bugs to contain!
This is the best video I have seen yet on the vine borers, the explanations images of how the bug looks like, how the eggs and vine borers look like, what to look out for, how to prune the zucchini plant and the 4 steps. I planted 8 crooked neck squash and all eight have the squash borers. When I found out I went after the borers with a tweezer. Last year I killed the vine borers in my butternut squash and it worked. This year I inspect every day and hope that my zucchinis will survive. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. I did not know how the bug or eggs looked like.
You're welcome Jessica, thank you for the kind words and have a wonderful garden season!
Thank you for sharing! Now I know what their eggs look like. I didn't get a harvest of my zucchini last year and I didn't know why. This is very helpful!
Yes, they are so frustrating! hopefully you can find them this year and enjoy your harvest!
I am ready to throw in the towel and grow the Italian blend.
This was so helpful. Thanks for showing us what it actually looks like and what we need to watch out for. I may be a little less scared to find an egg now 🤣
Find them and destroy! Good luck this year!
Awesome video! So much help. I didn't even try squash this year because of all the work for so little reward. Subscriber from NW Florida.
Hi Leah, good luck finding them. Can you do a fall squash planting in NW Florida?
OMG! Thanks so much. This is my first year doing squash in central Florida. I am definitely going to trellis and prune often. Great info.
You're so welcome, have a wonderful summer!
Thank you, nice vid... I won't let them win.. I have lost most of my zukes so far. But I am fighting. I like the idea of pruning. I will do that now. I have found another way. I plant a lot of Tromboncino and Cocuzzo. Bugs rarely bother them and they are very similar in taste to zukes. They are true vines and grow many feet and produce many fruit.
Glad you liked the video :) Great advice about the “zucchini like” vines. We haven’t tried them yet but they are definitely on the list. Keep up the good fight!
Great video. I have noticed the little rust colored eggs laid on the leaves of the plant very, very often. The leaves are shaped like a funnel and the egg tends to roll down to the branch the leave is on and perhaps onto the ground near the main plants main stem. The SVB moth in the northeast is similar. It is black and the wing tips are black with two orange strips across each black wing. I have seen them on thyme and blueberry bushes too, not just vines.
Thank you and interesting to know they look different in different regions. Hope you are having a nice gardening season!
I start my squash indoors and plant in progressively larger containers until they are strong. I also find that pyrethrum around the main stem is a good preventative.
Great points Scott! So you transplant them when they are pretty large into the garden?
@@TheGardenFamily Yes. I start them indoors in a shallow yogurt cup, and then transplant them into progressively larger containers until they are rather large. I know that it is not proper protocol with these plants, but I have found that doing this with squash, eggplant, and other very susceptible plants makes them a bit stronger against the bugs, which also seem to prefer younger plants. Also, where I live, borers are generally less active after mid-July, so waiting until then to transplant them into the garden. A couple of doses of spynosin or pyrethrum on the stems after planting also seems to act as a deterrent.
@@scottlewis6611 yes, I know many people say not to transplant but we haven’t had many problems transplanting squash. Never kept it inside that long however! Good strategy if you have the space!
Very informative 😊
Thanks Patricia!
Very helpful! May be too late for my plants.. Glad to understand that they also stay in the soil as I have a second wave of smaller plants and I’ll avoid planting them where they can get eaten too!
Glad it was helpful Jeanie! Gardening is always an exercise in humility and rolling with nature's punches. Hope you have a wonderful gardening season!
Super helpful. Thanks for taking the time to share the info.
Glad you found it helpful Matt, have a great gardening season!
@@TheGardenFamily Do you have to hand pollinate because you are starting the plants under cover? I heard you may have to do this because pollinators can't get to them when under cover.
@@matthewsummers4402 we keep them under cover until they start producing female flowers. This is obviously a lot easier with a zucchini than a vining plant like a pumpkin. For direct sown plants usually they are under cover for about 5 weeks or so. Once they are producing fruit we uncover them but if you wanted you can hand pollinate and keep them under cover the whole season
Thank you so much for this video! I go to war with those little $&$!# bugs every year and I always lose! But I won't give up! I will try these suggestions and maybe this year, I'll win and get some zucchini! One suggestion I have that I have found helpful is when I see the Vine borer eggs or the squash bug eggs, I hold a flame to them with a lighter. It kills the egg (and they pop like little popcorn kernels--so very satisfying!) And it does minimal damage to the plant.
I look forward to more content from this channel!
ooh, haven't tried the lighter yet but gosh that sounds satisfying! Glad it was helpful, thanks for watching and good luck with the war this gardening season!
I had a ton of squash vine borers last year. I’m going to treat with BT this year.
Hi! The problem with squash vine borers is the timing of any insectacide. They hatch and quickly burrow inside the plant so conventional spraying doesn't work well. Some say injecting BT into the hollow stem works, haven't tried it. If it works for you this year let us know!
Grow Rampicante squash. It is resistant to vine weevil. I grew it next to other squashes that succumbed to the weevil and It just kept putting out squash all summer. It does have a huge vine which I grew on a hog wire tunnel.
I’ll have to check it out, thanks!
Since they overwinter in the soil as pupae wouldn't a row cover essentially just trap them in with your plants??
We have never had this problem (never found any underneath the row cover). We are pretty good at killing all the ones in our garden but you could always rotate crops. Thanks for watching!
Thank you, great video.
So glad you enjoyed it!
Thank You!
You’re welcome!
Great tips, thanks for sharing
Glad they were helpful! Have a wonderful garden season
Thank you! Now I can battle these bugs!
Fight the good fight!
Can I pre treat by splitting the main stem and sprinkle DR inside to stop vine borer from undetected borders?
I wouldn’t recommend it. Splitting the main stem is a last ditch effort and causes significant damage to the plant. But you could always plant an extra one and give it a try! Thanks for watching :)
nice maryjane growing too.
Whoa what is that plant in front of the plant in the beginning? Lol. I just planted pumpkins for the first time in my life a month or two ago and they’ve been doing great. Till today I noticed leaves suddenly yellowing. Started looking into and found out about vine borers. After reading and then inspecting my plant I’ve got some borers so I started digging in the holes that I could find and pulling the larvae out. Is it too late to save the plant? Or can it come back? I’ve got one pumpkin on the plant that’s about the size of a softball. I had no idea about these borer pieces of S#%T being my first time doing anything other than peppers. If I put more dirt up the stalk to cover the part at the base that they ate through would that help or do anything? I was so excited to grow my own pumpkins for Halloween and I think it’s done for now.
At what point do you uncover the plant so it can be pollinated?
This video was extremely helpful and so easy to understand! Thank you so much! Will this work with cucumber plants as well?
We have not had problems with squash vine borers and cucumbers but growing vertically and pruning cucumbers definitely helps you inspect for cucumber beetles!
What I’d like to find is a list of SVB susceptible plants. I grow acorn, butternut, spaghetti and Cushaw squashes, watermelon, canteloupe, ananas and pumpkin. Unfortunately I’ve just seen this video and wonder if I can still grow them vertically without damaging the plants which have become quite large near the end of July. Anyone have a link to such a list? I’m also searching for one. Thank you for your very helpful tips. I suppose I’ll need to inject with BT, but not looking forward to it as I have numerous plantings and I also farm and raise pigs, chickens and rabbits. Not much time.
This video scared the crap out of me. I’m a first time gardener and I was in the garden with my son today and he said “what’s that? It looks like a wasp but it’s not a wasp” I didn’t know what it was. I tried to kill it but it got away. It was exactly that red thing you showed and I’ve never seen it before. I scared now.
Luckily they don't sting but yes, they look like wasps! Welcome to gardening, hope you have a great season!
@@TheGardenFamily I think I had too much damage. I pulled up my zucchini and spaghetti squash. Should it be easier as the weather cools?
@@morelandcapitalgroup8694 zucchini like hot weather. But if you plant now under cover you likely will still get a harvest depending on when your first frost is…
We have another young zucchini planted under cover right now just in case our current ones succumb to these guys despite our efforts, you can see the plants on our walk through video we posted today!
I learned a great deal about the dreaded vine borer via this video. I learned I have been fighting those turds for sometime now. I just didn’t know it. I have been picking those little red dots off my zucchini for a good bit. Now thanks to your video I know what the moth looks like that has been laying all those eggs. They’ve attacked my crook neck squash and zucchini. This is my first garden. The squashes are still bearing fruit but it’s been a challenge. What you didn’t review was your method for getting rid of the borers once they make it to the major root. Any info to share about ridding the plant of mature borers?
Glad this was helpful! I will have to do a follow up video on how to remove them once they are inside. It involves plant surgery which combines two of my favorite things! (I’m a surgeon in my regular job). Happy gardening!
Question... If a borer larvae is removed out of a pumpkin can I still eat that pumpkin? It look like it just entered just recently
Yes, it shouldn’t be a problem. That being said, the borers usually don’t attack the pumpkins themselves but usually the body of the plant.
What type of fleece do you buy?
Hi Carmen! It’s a lightweight spun fleece. There are multiple options but I have purchased both from Johnnys seeds as well as Amazon. I like the lighter weight ones. Thanks for watching!
Thank you so much for this video! My garden was decimated with them this season. I’ve already pulled up about 13 squash, cucumber and cantaloupe plants and have several more than I’m waiting to see if they’re salvageable. Once they’re inside the plant, is there anything that can be done? Or should I go ahead and start over? I’m in North Texas so starting over at this point wouldn’t be the end of the world, just very frustrating and time consuming.
I'm north texas too, last year I just couldn't keep up with them. So I made sure I buried the vines at multiple points so the damage didn't kill the entire plant long enough to reap a harvest.
Thanks for the suggestion! I did that and so far so good 😊
Some one suggested taking a small knife and open the vine and dig them out, i did unfortunately it was too late for the pumpkins, but I was able to save my cucumber who was also been attacked, at the vines i dig two out and he said to pack it with soil, I did so far so good keeping my fingers crossed, i will probably sow one pumpkin seed the next time instead of three ,to see all those dried up vines with nice size pumpkin's on them was heart breaking
I had a terrible infestationlast year. Out of 10 squash plants I only harvested 6 zucchini. I am so frustrated but this year I'll try Bt and diatomaceous earth. I will also try your tips. Does the cover prevent sunlight and how does that affect growth?
Hi Tricia! The cover probably reduces sunlight by 20% or so. I haven't seen any affect on growth. The main problem is pollinators can't get to the plants. So we usually cover them until they are producing female flowers then remove the cover. Good luck this year!
It's my first year attempting to grow yellow squash. If they go south it will also be my last. Way too much work to ensure against a vine borer caused calamity.
I’ll do an update of the lazy way in the near future :)
I've grown squash vertically. Last year vine borers killed them al😣 Gonna use other things this year.
It’s a hard fight to fight. Keeping them under row covers until they are full grown is super helpful and doesn’t take much effort! Wishing you the best of luck 👍
Nice upload, thanks for sharing. Liked and subscribed to your channel.
Thanks for the support!
You should keep the cover for 99%. When the flowers are open, take a small paint brush and cross pollinate. I like the vertical method too.
We do hand pollinate some of our squash but usually don't have the patience to hand pollinate the whole season...is that what you do?
I also hand pollinate, b but I use a Q-tip instead of a paint brush.
I don't know what to do. I pulled off 15ish eggs off of multiple plants a few days ago....just looked today and there's about a hundred eggs. I can't possibly get all of them. They are at the base, below the dirt. Everywhere. This is the 4th year.
Argh, hate these things! At least now you know what to look for and can halt their life cycle. I like growing my zucchini under cover until you see female fruit as one option. The more you can learn and educate your neighbors the less of these will be swarming around!
@@TheGardenFamily
Yes, my husband built me a screen cage a few years ago. It stayed behind when we moved, but it was most effective. I guess we're going to have to go that route again.
Thankfully, this is Central TX and I've got time to get another crop going.
Have you tried this strategy one your cucumber?
I haven't had problems with SVB on cucumbers...definitely have dealt with cucumber beetles and bacterial wilt however!
Merit 75 wsp at 1/8 a teaspoon per gallon of water sprayed. Every ten days or so. Done.
Sounds like a good way to kill the bees in your garden! Do not recommend
10 star!
Hope it was helpful Rose!
Hello, sorry I don't know your name. I am Ross Murphy of Shawnee, Kansas, a gardener with
much useful experience I manage a three-acre Community Garden and 15 to 18 families grow
much of their fresh food here.
First, the Roly-polies. Don't ever revile them; welcome them. They are extremely beneficial to
your garden. They never eat any growing plant, what they do is consume garden wastes,
even wood, digest it and return it to your garden as fertilizer. Their power and usefulness
can hardly be imagined. Let me give you a good example. Some years ago, when
my family were growing up here, we had a small family flock of hens, and a rooser, a real
necessity. Neighbors wanted to buy eggs so gradually our flock grew to 250, plus 15
roosters.
One day, I truck rolled by carrying ground up tree trunks and branches, probably ten tons of
wood chips. I ran out and stopped the driver. He had to drive to Leavenworth to dump this
in the landfill. I told him he could dump in my garden, which was like rubies or emeralds
as he had a round trip of 70 miles. The next day he had an equal amount, two gigantic
mounds of the wood. As our hens ran free-range, I put chicken wire fence around them
Soon the first roly Polies arrived and went to work, eating the wood. The population grew
to thousands, then probably to millions. They ate every day, all freezing winter too. At the
end of two years the mounds of wood chips was reduced to three feet high of nitrogen,
phosphorous and Potassium, the three elements of fertilizer.
I didn't have to pay them anything. Now, that spring, I took down the chicken fence and
let the chickens go at it. They like to scrape and scratch and they did this so they could
feast on the roly-polies. This reduced my chicken feed costs greatly and the eggs were
wonderful! They scattered that fertilizer over a huge area and I didn't have to pay them
anything. That amount of very rich fertilizer would have cost me dearly at Home Depot, and
the stuff at HD is 80 per cent filler.
Next the squash vein maggot. The eggs are laid by a pretty dark fly, about half an inch.
They have dark bodies and orange swept-back wings. They start in as soon as your
squash, of whatever variety, first get their leaves. So you have to act quickly to stop them
before they lay their tiny eggs. The eggs hatch and the larvae begin to chew their way
into the stems, at ground level. They enter the stem when they are the size of fly maggots.
At this time you can see their excreta at the bottom of the stem; it looks like fine sawdust.
At this moment you have a chance to kill them, by taking a long needle and stabbing it
around in the stem, killing some of them. This is only chancy though, so now I will tell
you the exact, perfect, never fail way to destroy them.
I am the man with THE PLAN
I think I am the only person who knows this and now there will be ALL OF YOU. About 20 or
so years ago, in the German state of Thuringia, was discovered an amazing thing: I was a
bacteria, a microbe, that if it were eaten by a corn ear worm, for example, the bacteria, upon
reaching the gut, starts to multiply, dividing and dividing again, you've seen movies of cell
division before, I feel sure. They multiply so fast, with so many that the will burst the stomach
of the worm grub and destroy it.
What a brilliant discovery! Now you can buy it from any garden shop or hardware store, in
powder or liquid form. I have used it for years and it is very effectived. So I bought some of
the liquid and painted the stems of the squash plants so the larvae would eat it and die.
This was only partly successful, because maybe the grub didn't eat it, or the rain washed it
away.
And then I had my serendipitous moment, my creative solution. Here it is: When the leaves
start on your squash, go to your pharmacy and buy---I think it is size 50--hypodermic needle.
The price is about fifty cents. Not the kind for injecting insulin, the needle won't push the watery
powder through. With the larger needle you can suck up some of the BT, bacillus thuringiensis,
in liquid form. Inject a small amount of the bacillus at the bottom of the stem of your plants.
You only have to do this once; the bacillus will take up residency inside the stem. Now, when
the grub eats his way into the stem, before her ever gets through into the interior, BT wiill
overwhelm him and kill him ded, ded, ded.
BT is harmless to people, and it will never move as high as the blossoms or the squash the
plant produces.No aluminum foil, no panty hose, no band-aids or stretch adhesive needed
at all. It is harmless to bees and other pollinators.
I have had many careers in my lifetime: Newspaper Editor of a Hollywood weekly newspaper;
computer diagnostician and repairman, in Los Angeles; electrical engineer in a great laboratory
in Upstate New York, Inventor; one of the top IBM computer salesmen in America, professional,
award-winning free--lance writer, business columnist for Washington Post/Newsweek for six
years. I also invented a garden weeding tool now in use, not only in the US, but also in five
foureign countries. You hold it in your hand and it kills weeds forever.
I also invented a little circuit and some microprogramming that will make a gigantic computer
system includiing all its outside devices, diagnose itself in less that half a minute. My invention
is used in every pc computer system in the world, more that three billion, plus now in every cell
phone. The royalties paid to IBM for the use of my circuit has earned three billion dollars for IBM.
I wish I could continue to tell you about how to rid your garden of the Squash Stinkbug, but enough
for now. Ross Murphy, Shawnee, Kansas, suprwedr@sbcglobal.net.
This guy is full of CRAP!!!!
I pulled nine plants up today! Including spaghetti squash, totally decimated! Starting over! I saw someone put aluminum foil on the stem! 😒
ugh! Sorry to hear about your plants. The foil on the stem works to keep the initial eggs from being laid but they will just come back and lay eggs on the larger stem / leaves after. That's why we keep ours covered completely until female flowers show up.
@@TheGardenFamily thank you! I will try that! I planted five more plants! Hoping for a harvest!
@@MichiDavis09 great! Depending on weather etc it usually takes about 5-6 weeks before they produce so you likely will still get some fruit!
Me too
It would be absolutely impossible for me to spend that much time looking over my entire plant for their tiny eggs. I simply spray them weekly with spinosad and permethrin.
Good point! We actually have a “lazy” way of doing things now that doesn’t involve sprays, perhaps we will make an updated video mid summer!
@@TheGardenFamily yes please! I used to have wonderful yields before the vine borers found me. Now it’s a never ending battle in central ok.
Looks like a beautiful indica next to you in the first half of the video.
Nope, not that exciting: dwarf peach tree 😂
Not a clue buddy