They did it. They defeated me THIS time. The squash bugs got all of the remaining pattypan squash plants. We were fighting the good fight until the first batch of eggs hatched. Then it was about a billion of them against just the two of us. (sigh) We pulled out the plants and sealed them in a trash bag and put them in the garbage can. Since we don’t use pesticides, we need to act swiftly and decisively to contain this outbreak. I have pumpkin and watermelon seeds sprouting right now, and I dearly want to keep them safe from these little monsters. Hopefully, by the time these seedlings are big enough to become tempting, the squash bugs will be late enough in their life cycle that they won’t go after them. I keep hearing that planting squash later in the season is best when you have these bugs.
The good news is that I saw LOTS of spiders when I was pulling up the plants. Apparently, spiders prey on these bugs, perhaps in the egg or nymph stage. So maybe by next season, with all of our organic care and compost, we’ll have a healthy enough ecosystem to keep these bugs in check. I did notice that the squash plants that got ANY shade fared worse than the squash in full sun. Duly noted.
7 July 2008 at 8:14 am
Hey, I just found your post as I was researching squash bugs. I actually started my internet search trying to identify what I thought were spiders- little black bugs with white bottoms. It turns out, though that these are actually squash bug nymphs, intermediate between the eggs and the adult bugs. I just want to make sure that these weren’t the “spiders” you were seeing.
Good luck!
7 July 2008 at 7:15 pm
I know exactly what you mean. The little nymphs do look kind of like spiders. But no, we have real spiders, too, thank goodness. And more and more birds and lizards, as our soil comes alive. With all of them, and me squishing these little bugs, we were able to keep them off of the pumpkin seedlings, although they tried! Unfortunately, the squash vine borers got the pumpkins. (sigh) Haven’t found a good solution for them yet.
14 July 2008 at 1:15 am
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