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davebell18

Help with pumpkin patch.

davebell18
12 years ago

I started to sell pumpkins last year and they turned out great. I now have about 3 acres of pumpkins that i am now planting and have found out many beetle like bugs on the pumpkins and vines that are making them rot. There are black looking beetles and little striped beetles. I figure there is not much i can do any more this year, but if there is please share. I am looking for an easy method that will not take alot of time as in walking plant to plant and picking up the bugs. Also what can i do to prevent them from destroying my crop next year. Thanks Dave

Comments (3)

  • Sid23
    12 years ago

    The yellow and black striped ones are probably "Striped Cucumber Beetles"
    If the others look like this, then they are Squash Beetles!


    The best way I know to deal with the squash beetle is to get them early. So next year watch your leaves carefully early in the season. Look for little clusters of brownish eggs usually in the V of the veins of the leaves that come together, sometimes they are on top of the leaf but most often they are under the leaf. I use a bic grill lighter and just burn that part of the leaf until the eggs are obviously useless. For the ones that have already hatched I make a solution of a castile soap like KIRK's or Dr. Bronner's Casile soap. the key is the "Castile" which I think is a veg based oil that the soap is made from. Kirk's is a bar soap. I have not seen any Bronner's but hear of others using it. I shave with a knife or cheese grater about 1/3rd bar of soap into 32 oz. very hot water. Let it dissolve and then put in spray bottle and get out there and spray them, every one. They like to hide under the leaves.
    Many people will grow a "sacrifice plant" early in spring to lure them out and kill them early.
    For this year and any year do not compost your old vines or leaves. They should be burned or taken from the area and disposed of. They like rotting vegetation. I have read to add compost not in the spring but in the fall and til several times after frost to keep turning up larvae to expose them. I realize you have a big patch and this may be daunting but this is the best advice I can give, if it is indeed Squash Beetles. I have dealt with them a lot this year, and researched a ton.

    Good luck!
    May have forgotten somethings being as late as it is. I will post later if I did. Others will have more advice for you I am sure. This is a common problem.

  • davebell18
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Last year was great with no problems. I used a green chopper to cut down all of the grass and pumpkins and then sprayed to kill all the weeds/grass. I then waited about a week for everything to die off and then plowed over the whole patch. I still have a lot of grass in my field this year so i will most likely do the same thing. I use round up to kill off everything. I am looking at making my field even bigger since the surrounding area is just a grass field. What should i do for clean up this year, and what should i do at the beginning of the season next year to not have bugs? Thanks again for all your help.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Help with pumpkin patch