Lost the Australian butter squash to borers

[wsmoak]

Nasty little things. I saw one vine wilt, and by then it was too late, there were borers in all three of them.

I pulled the vines out today, slit the vines open, and took great pleasure in feeding the destructive larvae to the chickens!

I am, however, thinking of re-planting them as a trap crop... so far, no damage to *any* of the other squash/cucumbers/melons. Maybe they taste better!

-Wendy

 

[vfem]

Its already a bad year for borers!!! ARGH!

I've got 1 squash down already, and I'm hand fighting to save the others. BEtween squash bugs and borers.... keeps my mornings BUSY!

 

[lesa]

Man I hate those things!!!! Good luck! They have expressed no interest in my butternut squash....(knock on wood!)

 

[wsmoak]

I had butternut and Australian butter in the same 4x8 bed, and they only went for the butter squash. (Which is, apparently, a pumpkin!)

So... how did this happen? I gather they are not like tomato horn worms which are in the soil already (I'm waiting for THOSE too!).

Was there a bug that laid eggs, or was it a moth that caused this?

ETA: ah ha! Apparently they won't attack the butternut squash because those have solid stems. And it's a strange looking moth with red bits.

-Wendy

 

[wsmoak]

Oh. So *that's* why the yellow squash and zucchini have been acting kind of wilty and not producing much. (I can be excused for blaming it on the 100 degree heat!)

The borers got them, too. I'll let the few yellow squash finish up and then pull those out too. More chicken food!

I found an article that suggests most of us are keeping the borers as pets, and how to avoid it. http://tomclothier.hort.net/page30.html

-Wendy