Treat and prevent infection
Squash are some of the easiest vegetables to grow in your garden each year. Whether you like the mild, mild taste of summer squash like zucchini or prefer winter squash soups and bags like pumpkins, most of us allow at least one type of squash to be eaten in our gardens each year.
Today we are going to deal with a common squash pest - the squash bug.
Anasa Tristis; The most beautiful name for such an appetite bug. These sneaky insects will not discriminate against all kinds of squash in your garden, from your heirloom Italian zucchini to the Connecticut field pumpkins you grow for Halloween. On rare occasions, you may even find them eating cucumbers and melons. Let’s take a look under the leaves at how to manage squash pests when they enter our gardens.
The squash bug is found mainly in North America, appearing every winter as a large pest somewhere in your backyard. From June to July, they begin to search for squash for food and as a nursery for the next generation.
And boy, are they prolific.
If you think your zucchini produces a lot of fruit, grab your poop because a female squash insect will lay up to 250 eggs.
Once they hatch, these bugs pass through five separate thaws before reaching maturity. When first hatching, the insects have dark, blackheads and bright, leaf-green bodies on the back. They become more elongated and darker with each successive melting, moving from gray to the final brown.
How to find squash bugs
These shy creatures usually run to the base of the leaves or disappear into cracks in the soil if found. If you have the onset of infection, you may find groups of young green nymphs gathering at the base of squash leaves. Another sign of the presence of squash insects is their eggs, which are usually found at the base of the leaves. Eggs vary in color from yellow to copper-brown depending on their age.
One of the easiest ways to diagnose infection is the damage left by squash bugs.
Squash Insects Infect squash vines, leaves, and fruits with a small hole, such as a small straw, and then suck sap from the plant. This food leaves small yellow needles and eventually turns brown.
Squash pest damage
If there are enough bugs, they will wither the plant and the insect feeding areas may turn black and die. Many gardeners mistakenly think that this wilt and blackness is bacterial wilt.
While a few squash bugs are annoying, a lot of them are needed to do enough damage to kill a mature plant. However, they can cause enough damage to kill a large number of young plants.
Cucurbit Yellow Vine Disease
Pumpkin is the main culprit behind the increase in yellow fever in the states. What was once a rare disease is now very common. Cucurbit yellow fever is caused by a bacterium (Serratia marcescens) that spreads through the sucking openings of squash insects. Within a few days of infection, the vines of the plant turn yellow, and about two weeks after infection, the plant dies.
6 Ways to Deal with Squash Pests in Your Garden
1. Plank trap
One of the most effective methods of dealing with infection is simple. (This is also an easy way to see if you have any squash bugs.)
Place the boards between the rows next to your squash plants. A 2 × 8 or 2 × 10 works well. Lay down the trees near your pumpkin plants in your garden and then flip the board over early the next morning, after sunrise.
If there are squash insects, they will hide under the tree. Bring soap water in a bowl so you can pick up insects and die in the water.
2. Hand Pick
Handbag squash bugs from plants you can see when weeding or picking squash. Small nymphs like to tie together at the base of leaves. You can often wipe them in these groups with a sturdy smash from your garden glove.
3. Pesticides
Unfortunately, some of the most effective controls for squash pests are chemical pesticides, which can be very harmful to pollinating people. Please refrain from using these options Organic growers who want to stay reduce their workload, but can control squash pests in their gardens using pyrethrin and neem oil. Spray the plants only in the evening when the flowers are covered so as not to interfere with pollination
4. Avoid mulch
Squash bugs like to hide, so applying mulch to or near your squash plants provides the perfect place to hide them. If you have a problem with squash pests, you can avoid mulching your squash plants. If you have already mulched, tap it to remove the insect's hiding place.
5. Use row covers in the spring
You can prevent damage to young plants and remove the nesting sites of female squash pests by using floating row covers in early spring. Before removing the row covers, wait for your squash plant to grow well.
6. Trap crop
Since squash pests are a part of some types of squash, you can plant blue Hubbard squash as a trap crop. If it is to be a trap crop, it is best to plant it well away from your garden.
An ounce of block squash is worth ten pounds
One of the best ways to deal with squash bugs is to prevent them from returning next season.
Since adult pests winter on dead leaves, you should always remove your squash plants when you cover your garden for the year. There are some pests that want to find shelter in last year’s plants, so you will protect not only the squash bugs but also the garden next spring.
It is best to look for squash eggs at the beginning of the season in early June. Check for eggs at the base of the leaves of young plants and break and destroy the eggs.
A great advocate for horticulture that I have not dug; However, if you have a particularly bad infection of squash pests, it is better to plow the land in the fall. This will prevent the current generation of pests from wintering in the soil.
With these preventative measures, we can ensure that any problems related to squash bugs this season will not recur next year.
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