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therandomme14

I'm freaking out about my pumpkins!!!

Therandomme14
9 years ago

So I was out today checking my pumpkin plants and I just so happened to look under them to look for the squash bug's eggs and all of a sudden there were multiple black spots that were under my plants.
Next, my female flowers haven't started growing and I'm afraid all the male flowers will die like they are doing now and I won't have a chance this year:(
Finally Squash bug eggs. I have been cutting them off the leaf and putting them on the pavement and crushing them with my sneaker and now I'm putting them in soapy water and them pouring it out in the grass and stompinng on them. Please give me other advice about killing them. Also I see the squash bugs mating on my sunflowers and then they move over and lay their eggs on my squash plants and I caught the female one time but I lost another one today and the male keeps getting away from me. Please give me some advice to this please, Thanks!!!

Comments (5)

  • StephanieHS
    9 years ago

    Hi. What do you mean by black spots under the plants? Can you post a pic?

    Also, how long is your plant? My pumpkin plant is 10 feet long and has just gotten its first viable female flower. I've had male flowers for a couple weeks at least. They only live one day. Depending on the size of your plants, you may not have a problem when it comes to the flowers.

    I've had some success getting rid of squash bugs just by catching and crushing the adults and smashing eggs. A good way to catch the adults is to spray soapy water all over lower parts of plant and mulch beneath. They will move to top of plant to avoid water and then you can kill kill kill ;)
    There is also a pests & diseases forum on here, you may want to ask for advice over there. I have in past and I'm amazed how knowledgable some of gardeners who post over there are!

  • Sid23
    9 years ago

    You can take a bottle sprayer filled with water and add some Dawn dish soap after the water. Enough so you can see the pale blue. In the past I have had hundreds so I use a 1 1/2 gal. pressure sprayer with about 2T Dawn. Mix it don't shake it. You don't want it like your doing dishes. Adjust sprayer between mist and stream and spray directly on the squash bugs. The soap coats their exoskeleton and causes them to suffocate. Works very well but has to be applied directly to bug. The eggs unfortunately must still be removed by hand. Duct tape works well for this. At the end of season I leave one vine with a sacrificial pumpkin or squash to attract all the bugs left. Every evening I will go out to spray them until they quit coming. If your infested you should burn all vines at the end of season, the bugs overwinter in vegetation. I also tilled several times in the fall when a hard frost was predicted. Brings up the ones in the soil and hopefully they are killed by the frost.

  • mister_guy
    9 years ago

    People that mention spraying squash bugs with soap rarely mention how satisfying it is to watch their bodies lock up tight and stiffen up. Normally, I am a very compassionate person, but I kinda WANT squash bugs to die badly...

  • Sid23
    9 years ago

    Dido what Mister.Guy says. Also, I can no longer wash my dishes in Dawn. The smell just makes me think of all the bugs and dying leaves. Yuck!!!

  • oldgardenguy_zone6
    9 years ago

    Yes the soap mix is affective I use a hose end sprayer 22oz water 2oz soap (what ever is on sale this year "Gain lemon scent" then at mid day I Nuke um you can get under the leaves and really suds it up then wait about 5-10 min. and all the ones fleeing the soap will come to the top and then give a second spray later I come back an get all the dead ones off the leaves because they look like live ones I missed but their just corpses. but the eggs are important have found that you can just scape them off the leaves I use tape If I have it with me but just get them off the leaves they need that to hatch I've put them in a cup and laid it under foliage they don't hatch same with leaves cut off leave and laid it on ground and checked they never hatch they are hard to keep at bay but if your persistent it's worth it. Picture is of a dead one

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