squash bugs and pickleworms!!! AAAGGGHHHH!!!

[TheNewBee]

so we have been picking the bugs from the zucchini for awhile now and it seems they are winning now we find these worms and eggs everywhere looks like pickleworms. all the reading says to give up and pull the plants but 1 article said to use food grade DE. and I do have some that I use in the chicken coop. they say to use carefully not in the morning when flowers are open so not to get inside flowers where bees and such will go, which makes sense to me.
Here's the question.... is there a chance of this working or will I cause more damage to the beneficial insects trying to get rid of the bad. so do i treat or pull the plants...whats your opinions?????

 

[mistyfeather]

get 2 ducks! i had the same problem....not anymore my 2 ducks made short work of the nasty little things and the slugs too! plus they didnt harm the plants!

 

[hoodat]

Thuricide will do the job on the pickle worms but if you find something that works on squash bugs I'd sure like to know about it. When we could still get sapadilla it did a pretty good job on them but everything else just seems to roll right off them with no effect.

 

[jojo54]

will the chickens eat them if you let them out supervised?

 

[simple life]

My chickens would.

 

[hoodat]

My chickens would.

I actually doubt it. Squash bugs put out an awful stink when disturbed. If you mash one your fingers will smell of them all day. They would have to taste really nasty. I've never seen a wild bird eating one.

 

[simple life]

I thought she was concerned about her chickens eating the squash and plants not the bugs because she said unsupervised.
I was referring to the fact that my chickens would and have eaten anything they can when unsupervised.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I've never tried them, but guineas are supposed to be good control for squash bugs. Supposedly they will eat the bugs and not the squash plant or the squash.

I feed overripe squash to my chickens, just split it open and throw it in. They leave nothing except the skin. I have not let chickens in the garden around squash or anything else, but I'd expect them to eat the young squash before it got a tough skin. I don't know if my omnivorous velociraptors would eat the plant itself, but I'd think their scratching could do a lot of damage.