Well, I dropped the ball! This is a follow up to Tuesdays episode about problems in cucumbers. I failed to mention two pests that plague many gardeners - squash vine borers and squash bugs.
So, let's remedy this situation! Spend a quick 15 minutes with me while we talk about these pests and how to prevent them.
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Hello my gardening friends. This is a surprise Focal Point
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Friday episode because I feel like I did you a disservice on
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Tuesday. So this week episode 201, we
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talked about problems with cucumbers and one of those
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sections was talking about the pests that plague our cucumber
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plants. And wouldn't you know it, I
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completely failed to mention two of the biggest culprits of
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killing off our cucumber vines, which are the squash vine borer
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and the squash bug. Now, the reason that I forgot
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about these I think is because I had cucumbers on the brain and I
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had cucumber bugs specifically on the brain.
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So the striped cucumber beetles, the spotted cucumber beetles,
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the aphids, those types of things.
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And in my garden, the majority of the pest problems that I have
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with cucumbers are with those pests, specifically the cucumber
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beetles. I do have the squash vine borer
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and I do have the squash bugs, but they seem to relegate
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themselves specifically to my zucchini plants and then into
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like my winter squashes and stuff.
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As a matter of fact, when I was out in the gardens yesterday, I
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was in my zucchini plants and I was checking every single one of
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those plants for the squash vine borer and for squash bugs.
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We'll talk about that here in a second.
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On almost every single one of my zucchini plants, I found the
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squash vine bore eggs. On some plants I found multiple
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eggs and there were some random squash bugs sort of in and
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around that area too. None of my cucumbers had
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evidence of either of these pests.
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And those cucumbers are literally one row over from my
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zucchini and my yellow squashes, I mean literally four or five
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feet away. So in my yard, definitely the
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preference for these insects is to go for the squashes.
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But if you're not growing a lot of squash and you are only
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growing cucumbers, or if you grow a lot of both and you just
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happen to be in an area where, yes, your cucumbers do get
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plagued by these guys, I wanted to cover those two for you to
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make sure that you have as much information at your disposal to
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be able to sort of keep them at Bay.
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So let's talk about the squash bug first.
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The big deal with these guys is that they overwinter as adults
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and so as soon as it warms up in the spring, they are out and
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they are looking for something to feed on and then something to
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reproduce on. So it is very important to
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remove any debris from the garden at the end of the season
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to give these guys less places to or fewer places to
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overwinter. Now I say that knowing full well
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that a lot of us leave leaves and other things over the winter
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in our beds as a way to mulch for the winter.
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So and that kind of counts as debris.
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So I just tend to make sure that I am cleaning up any squash
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plants and anything that is in the same family in terms of
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weeds because those can be alternate hosts.
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So you want to bury or you want to compost all your plant
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residues after harvest in order to give them, you know, fewer,
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fewer chances to be able to overwinter.
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The most effective approach to messing or to deterring the
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squash bugs is to manage your plants for these pests every day
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or at least every other day. That's kind of my, my habit is
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every other day. So the first thing is I go
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through my plants and I'm flipping the leaves up.
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Now I'm doing this on zucchini, but again, this is for
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cucumbers. You flip those leaves up and you
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look underneath egg clusters of the squash.
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Bugs are going to be located where the veins of the leaves
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form AV and they are like a cluster of shiny yellow eggs.
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You will know them when you see them.
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You can crush these eggs. You can, you know, put a glove
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on and coat it in petroleum Jelly and wipe them away that
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way. I've seen people do duct tape
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and, and pull them off that way. I just crush them.
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I, I crush them right there on the, the leaf surface and maybe
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even pull that portion of the leaf surface off and crush it
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really good. Anytime you see any of the
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adults, you want to pick them off and you want to kill those
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on site. You can trap the adults by
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placing a piece of cardboard underneath your plants and you
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just let that sit overnight and then you come out in the morning
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and uncover that cardboard really quick and then just kill
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all the ones that you find underneath.
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This is a very violent way of getting rid of these squash
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bugs, but quite literally it is the only way to take care of
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them because I don't know of any real beneficials that are
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targeting squash bugs. I have also done row covers
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early on to help at least deter them for a while.
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And if we're talking about the diva cucumbers like we talked
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about in Tuesday's episode that are parthenocarpic, you do not
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need to uncover them in order for them to reproduce.
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They do not need pollinators. So if the squash bugs are
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repetitively every season are in your cucumbers, then you might
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try growing that diva variety and covering the plants
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immediately with an insect netting or a row cover and
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leaving them covered, only uncovering them to work in the
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plants to either trellis them or to weed or to harvest.
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Now this doesn't always work because obviously there are
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different types of cucumbers that we want to grow.
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Not everything that I grow is that diva cucumber people you
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know our markets like the sort of more traditional type of
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cucumbers. The Divas are a thin skinned,
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burpless type. If you want like a market more
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76 or a straight 8 or one of the more traditional ones and
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obviously you need the pollinators if you're doing
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pickling cucumbers, you want the pollinators.
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So if you are using row covers, you can start those early on to
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at least help deter them for a little while, but then those
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have to come off once the plants start to bloom.
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In my plants this year, I am alternating between using that
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Captain Jack's Dead bug, the Spinosad, and Elm Dirt's Shield
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product. And I'm using it, like I said,
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intermittently so that I can extend the amount of time that I
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can use the spinocet. So far, the plants that I
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treated have done fabulously well.
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So I'm sort of doing a control right now.
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And actually now I'm done with the control because I've seen
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all I need to see. All the ones that are up by the
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house were treated in that manner over the course of
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several weeks. And I have had very, very few
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squash bugs. I have had no squash vine borer
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eggs on those plants and I've only seen a handful of clusters
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versus the section in another field that was not being treated
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in this in this manner. And that was the ones that had
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all of the squash vine borer eggs on them.
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So I'm definitely sort of leaning towards using that
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combination for the rest of the season.
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So let's talk about that squash vine borer.
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This insect is like the bane of many garters existence,
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especially if you grow cucumbers, any type of squash,
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even loofah, that sort of thing. The adults of the squash vine
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borer come out in the late spring and they lay eggs usually
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at the base of the plants and it takes about a week for the
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larvae to emerge and then they bore into the stem of the plant
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and that's how they feed. So they will feed inside the
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plant for a few weeks and then they come out and they Burrow
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into the soil and that's where they pupate and they stay there
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until the next spring and then they hatch, they become adults
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and they start the cycle all over again.
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This is where crop rotation can come in very, very handy if you
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have the room, because if you are planting cucumbers in the
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same space every single season, or in this case we can talk
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squash too, it's the same thing. If or you're rotating squash and
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then cucumbers, they're all in the same family.
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So if you're planting something in the same family over and over
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again, and this is the spot where those moths are emerging,
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well, they've got their target right there when they come out
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of the soil. So if you see the burrowed area
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at the base of the plant where the larvae have dug in, you have
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to cut open the stem and try to remove the larvae by hand and
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destroy it. This is tedious, it doesn't
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always work, It all depends on how large the larvae is as to
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whether or not it has done so much damage to your plant that
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it's actually going to already die.
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So the step that you need to take before this is to prevent
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those eggs from hatching in the 1st place.
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Now, a lot of gardeners have sworn by wrapping foil collars
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around the base of their plants to help prevent the moth from
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laying the eggs. And yes, that does protect the
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more tender area at the base of the plant.
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But from what I have seen, the moth just moves further up the
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plant. I have, you know, pretty heavy
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layers of mulch around the base of my plants where it is most
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tender. And that's not where I'm finding
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the eggs. I am finding them further up the
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stem. In fact, I found one right on
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the stalk of one of the leaves, so it wasn't even close to the
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stem. So I don't think they're super
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preferential. And so I'm not sure that
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covering the base is really going to do too much.
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Now I have seen people, and there was one gentleman in
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particular who stake their zucchini plants to thicken that
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stem up a little bit to make it a little bit more difficult for
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the vine bore to introduce itself into the plant.
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So if you're you're trellising your cucumbers effectively,
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hopefully that would strengthen that stem up a little bit more.
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But I don't really think that's a very foolproof method either.
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Honestly, the most foolproof method is almost the same thing
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as what we do with the squash bugs.
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You have to be out there checking every couple of days
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and looking for the eggs and the eggs are easy to see.
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It doesn't. You wouldn't think that they are
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because they are tiny, but they are a tiny red dot, like a rust
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red color. And once you've seen it, you
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know exactly what you're looking for and you can see it every
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single time. I have gotten to the point where
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I don't even look anymore. Yes, I'm going through and I'm
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looking and I'm, you know, lifting up the leaves and I'm
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looking, but I am more just making sure that I am rubbing my
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fingers all along the outside edge of the stem, all around it
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to make sure that I am completely rubbing off any
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possibility of that egg still being there.
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So that's your first sort of line of defense is to prevent
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that egg from hatching. And then if that does happen and
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you see the spot where the larvae have dug in, then you
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have to cut it open and see what you can do.
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I have also heard of people injecting BT into the base of
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their plants, bacillus syringes. And I don't know that I am the
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proponent of that. You know, there are genetically
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engineered crops that are engineered to have BT in the
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tissue. And I'm not really sure I want
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to be eating that either. So, you know, do what you need
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to do, just save your cucumber plants.
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But you know, that's, that's not going to be my first option.
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I will also say that if again you can cover with insect
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netting until it's time for the plants to be pollinated, that
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would be a good idea. If you can determine what the
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life cycle is of the squash vine bore moth in your area and wait
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to plant your first cucumbers or squashes until after that cycle
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is over, then you might have a fighting chance.
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And this goes with the squash bugs too.
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If there aren't any squash for them to feed on early in the
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season when they emerge and that's the time when they're
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supposed to be mating. The problem with squash bugs is
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they meet mate continuously. So you will quite literally have
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every single life stage of the squash bug on one plant.
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It's just disgusting the stupid things.
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But if you wait to plant your cucumbers until after the the
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heaviest amount of pressure is, is over.
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So instead of rushing to plant right at the very beginning of
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the spring, you know, or, or the beginning of May, if you can
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wait until, I don't know, the end of June, the middle of July,
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cucumbers produce very, very quickly.
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And so you are still going to get a ton of cucumbers.
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And in this instance, you might actually get even more because
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you're not having to fight the insect pressure.
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So one final thing, and I didn't mention this on Tuesday's
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episode, but if you find yourself or your plants, I hope
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you're not finding yourself succumbing to these diseases.
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I hope you're not finding your plants either.
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But if you find that your plants are succumbing to insect rests
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or to diseases or whatever it is, it is perfectly acceptable
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and actually recommended for you to do a succession planting of
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your cucumbers. As a matter of fact, cucumbers
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are going to eventually sort of start reducing their production
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anyway as they go into the summer.
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And so if you planted them very, very early, you might see that
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production start to wane. And by that point you might just
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be done with cucumbers. You might be over the whole
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thing, and that's perfectly fine.
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But there's nothing that says that you can't plant a second or
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even a third crop of cucumbers as the season goes on.
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So oftentimes what I will do is I will plant cucumber plants and
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then the next section that I plan on doing cucumbers, I will
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go ahead and pop some seeds in the ground at the same time that
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I'm putting the plants in the ground.
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So I have one that's already, you know, maturing while the
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other ones are germinating. And then, you know, about a
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month later, I will do one more round directly from seed in the
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soil. At this point, the seeds are
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popping up or the seedlings are popping up so fast because the
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soil is already so warm that they actually catch up fairly
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quickly. So you can play around with
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this, but if you start to see that your plants are dying or,
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you know, they're having too many bugs or whatever, and
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you're not able to get much in the way of, of plants or in the
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way of, of, of harvest, then go ahead and try again.
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You know, wait a little while and then go ahead and plant some
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later on. You might actually be facing a
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little bit less pest pressure. So I hope that was a good
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addition to Tuesday's episode. I apologize for missing that.
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I know there were several of you that asked that question, so I
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figured I would address it right away and get you the information
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that you needed. So happy planting and happy
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Friday.