"Last year we only dealt with the squash bugs, and contrary to what we read, they will indeed happily eat watermelon and cucumbers as well as the squash. "
ditto, Trish. Squash bugs are my nemesis. I end up growing squash early on and harvest until I no longer win the war. Some years I won't plant any more; This year I'm going to set some more squash plants out in 3 weeks, hoping for a later harvest..
Patti, regarding squash bugs, when I used to grow squash for mkt I took the time to spray Safer's Soap mixed with a bit of alcohol in the water. It really helped for a while. Should you go this route you'll have better success (and great fun!) going down your squash rows with a water hose/wand, wetting the plants down from the base on up. The squash bugs hate being wet so they'll crawl to the top of the plant to dry themselves off in the sun. That's when you go back with your sprayer and solution and zap them! You'll have to hit them pretty hard with the solution. Some will die, others will faint. I suppose you could also pick them off into a bucket of soapy water, too.
I've used mint tea as a repellent...I wonder if spraying it on pumpkins/squash would freak out the SVB adult, making her think the plants were mint. Maybe it'll work on the squash bugs, too, eh? :>)
Dave, corn and cowpeas...at least the SVB/squash bugs won't mess with those. (Now you need to go buy that sheller I was telling Trish about!)
Shoe
