New ideas for squash vine borers

[flowerbug]

Mono culture is also supposed to be responsible for the over abundance of pests.

i'm sure it doesn't help, but i also think that it is natural for there to be cycles. for example this year is box elder bugs galore.

 

[digitS']

Research for research sake useless? Not so!

Curious as to why the pest isn't in West ... well, I still don't know! However! I found quite a resource. It's a 501(3)c for land-grant university members.

http://articles.extension.org/pages...-squash-vine-borer-in-organic-farming-systems

I wonder if this wasn't public until recently or if I've just been too provincial with my site:edu searches. Anyway, a nice lot of info on the pest.

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

Thanks! How do you interpret this, and what practice to use prior to planting?
"Disrupting mature larvae or pupae in the plants or soil by tilling in crop debris soon after harvest is the primary cultural practice for preventing a buildup of squash vine borer. "
Also, this:
"Because squash vine borer is only a sporadic pest in large-scale conventional production, it has received relatively little research attention. "

 

[catjac1975]

Thanks! How do you interpret this, and what practice to use prior to planting?
"Disrupting mature larvae or pupae in the plants or soil by tilling in crop debris soon after harvest is the primary cultural practice for preventing a buildup of squash vine borer. "
Also, this:
"Because squash vine borer is only a sporadic pest in large-scale conventional production, it has received relatively little research attention. "

I interpret it that you till up the soil in fall to help kill larvae. Not much research because not significant threat-perhaps because of pesticides.

 

[ducks4you]

What about tilling up the area and putting my chickens on it right afterwards? Do you think that will help?

 

[6884]

It certainly couldn't hurt. I despise these things, last year I had to plant zucchini in 3 week intervals to keep ahead of them. no amount of leave picking, egg collecting, bug killing seemed to work. I disked the infected plants in, and planted peas on top of them. Good pea crop, but worked my butt off to get a good zucchini crop.

My early plants did great but once the bugs got going good, they could kill a row every couple weeks.

I'm probably going to go the soapy water route this year like I've heard some say and just keep a sprayer ready all the time.

 

[Beekissed]

I wonder...I know it sounds rather extreme, but if a person wouldn't grow vine crops one year, would that halt the cycle? The worms would come out to find nothing of their natural food/hiding spots to live and grow and couldn't complete the cycle.

Could be this is why commercial growers have less of this going on...maybe they rotate the crops they grow every once in awhile so that some years they don't do squash type veggies at all. Well...plus all the use of insecticides...

 

[flowerbug]

...
Good pea crop, but worked my butt off to get a good zucchini crop.

My early plants did great but once the bugs got going good, they could kill a row every couple weeks.

try the trombonico's referenced above. i read enough descriptions of them to consider them close enough for similar uses when picked young (and isn't that the same issue with zukes too anyways ). if i ever get in the zucchini growing here i'll probably do these instead since they do sound interesting and different enough. at present we only grow the buttercup squash because we like that so much and aren't much into summer squash (we'd rather grow cucumbers for making pickles).

 

[flowerbug]

Research for research sake useless? Not so!

Curious as to why the pest isn't in West ... well, I still don't know! However! I found quite a resource. It's a 501(3)c for land-grant university members.

http://articles.extension.org/pages...-squash-vine-borer-in-organic-farming-systems

thanks,

will give it a more thorough read through when i have a few more brain cells.

my guess is that large fields are being nuked with enough pesticides and tilled often enough to keep them from reproducing.

 

[baymule]

I wonder...I know it sounds rather extreme, but if a person wouldn't grow vine crops one year, would that halt the cycle? The worms would come out to find nothing of their natural food/hiding spots to live and grow and couldn't complete the cycle.

Could be this is why commercial growers have less of this going on...maybe they rotate the crops they grow every once in awhile so that some years they don't do squash type veggies at all. Well...plus all the use of insecticides...

No. Nobody gardens around me, this place NEVER had a garden on it and stink bugs and squash bugs and borers found me anyway, with a vengeance.