Look what it did to my lovely white pumpkin plant. I had to slit the vine to get it out. I covered it up with dirt, since other bugs like to take up residence in there if it's left exposed.
I've lost too many squash and pumpkin plants to these dang bugs. Although disposing of them has become a little more entertaining. These guys used to get an easy quick death by squashing (ha! pun intended). But now, they become chicken food. These guys are to chickens what dark chocolate truffles are to me - gourmet food. They will actually chase each other around, grabbing at whoever got the bug first, trying to snatch it out of their beak. It's a lot of fun to watch. Probably not so much for the next squash bug waiting in line...To get that ugly squash vine borer pic out of your head, I'll leave you with E - enjoying her outside time while eating dirt:
See that white thing behind her arm? That's the actual spoon she was using to eat the dirt. She's so civilized.
Thanks for the squash vine borer photo - I haven't grown squash since I was a kid (space issues) but am thinking about it next year if I can build a trellis and grow it vertically, and it's nice to see what I might be up against. They remind me of grubs. And I love the pic of your daughter - I have a 16 mo old girl and often find her eating things in the yard, especially sand. I have big soup ladles outside the girls use to play in the sandbox and in buckets of water, and she often tries to eat or drink using them.
ReplyDeleteEating dirt is a favorite around here, too.
ReplyDeleteI've always wondered how do those kinds of bugs find the plants that they love the most? Are they native to your yard? B/c then wouldn't you have every kind of bug there just waiting for you to plant their plant specialty? I mean, where do they come from??
she is indeed so very civilized!
ReplyDeletehmm we will be on the look out. thanks for the photo!
ReplyDeleteNot had any of these on our squash, guess we have been lucky. I used to get rid of Japanese Beetles by tossing them into the pond, the fish would catch them in most cases. The drought of 2002 killed our fish, so we don't feed them anymore.
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