Quote:
Originally Posted by mekrebs
Try growing this instead because:
- The squash bugs don't bother it.
- Picked young, it's better than summer squash
- Let it mature and its long lasting winter squash
- It prolific as hell and will start rooting wherever the vine has ground contact
Zuchetta Tromba d'Albenga
http://www.growitalian.com/products/...27Albenga.html
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Guess you've been lucky... because squash bugs have infested mine some years. The plants are unlikely to suffer from the attack as much as
C. maxima squashes, though. They are really only vulnerable to squash bugs (or SVB) when young. BTW, the same squash is also sold by many other vendors as Tromboncino, or Zuccetta Rampicante.
For those who have never seen squash bugs, the adults are brown or gray, and closely resemble an assassin bug in size & shape. The nymphs are grayish... and usually in
huge numbers.
Cleaning up all garden waste at the end of the season will help keep squash bug numbers down - you need to eliminate hiding places for them to over winter. But if you have a lot of other gardens near you, or live near a pumpkin patch, you are pretty much stuck with them - because they locate squash plants by scent, and will just fly in from surrounding areas. It has been my experience that fertilizing young squash plants seems to increase the likelihood & severity of squash bug attacks, perhaps because it increases the chemical scents which attract them... so fertilizer is perhaps best applied later, after the infestation period has passed.
Row covers can be effective, if timed right. You want to cover the plants during the squash bug egg laying cycle... in my area, when I cover the young plants during the SVB cycle, it usually prevents squash bugs too. The cover should be large enough & loose enough to allow the young vines to roam. For me, if I remove the cover when flowering begins, the plants are usually safe from both insects. Thus far, I have never lost a squash crop if it was initially protected with a row cover... my losses were usually severe, or total, without one.
If you don't use a row cover, make an effort to find & kill the first adults, and their eggs. The first adults will often appear near the base of the stem, and will hide in soil crevices if disturbed. They will also hide under dead leaves (some of which are leaves they have killed) so remove those leaves as you find them.
If you don't like poisons or squishing, squash bugs are
very vulnerable to soap spray in all stages. In a one-quart spray bottle, I use: 1 cup rubbing alcohol; 1 tsp liquid soap; 1 tbs cooking oil; 1 tbs syrup (maple or corn syrup); and fill the remainder with water. Add the ingredients in the order listed; the alcohol prevents the soap from foaming, and the soap emulsifies the cooking oil. Add water to 1/2 full initially, shake vigorously until the oil & syrup have completely dissolved, then add water to fill & shake gently. The soap can be any mild soap, I recommend Safers, baby shampoo, or Dawn.
Hunt for the bugs with bottle in hand; if the bugs are completely covered with the spray, they will die within minutes. If you can find their egg masses, the spray will kill them also. To minimize the chances of leaf burn, you can rinse the sprayed areas with water after 30 minutes, since the bugs will be dead by then. This spray works on almost any insect pest; I also use it on aphids, caterpillars, Colorado potato bug larvae, and Japanese beetles. It will even knock wasps out in mid-air... so I use it (at night) to eliminate paper wasps that have built their nests in inconvenient locations.