Early Signs of Squash Vine Borer?

Yesterday, I saw a squash vine borer flying around my garden and it worried me. I checked the base of each plant and didn't see anything. But would I see much if she'd recently layed the eggs? I've seen pictures of the larva and frass, but I'm hoping to catch it early.

Do I just have to wait it out and watch for signs of larva? Is there anything I can do to prevent this? Maybe wrap something around the base of the vines to keep her out of there?

I have three sprawling pumpkin vines, a yellow squash and a zucchini bursting with produce, and some baby watermelons getting bigger every day. I'd hate to lose any of them!

You can look for eggs on the leaves of the squash. Otherwise you're left to look for the "evidence" after they've started boring into the stems.

Oh, the caterpillars bore in the stem AFTER they hatch! Thanks. That's the piece I was missing.

I'll just keep an eye out for eggs. Not an easy task, but at least I can feel like I'm doing something.

For anyone else reading this thread, here's an article I just now found. http://www.gardensalive.com/article.asp?ai=804&bhcd2=1247576316 It gives lots of suggestions.

And here's a picture I found of the eggs: http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/9305/eggs4wt.gif

I saw my first moth yesterday. I'd been kinda wondering when they'd show up.

The website said they stop laying around July 4th, but they might be late because of the weather.

I'm thinking about lettuce already. When do you think I can start putting seeds in? Mid-August, maybe? You were the one who did the lettuce experiments last year, if I'm remembering correctly.

A woman at my community garden was complaining that her romaine tasted bitter. It's two and a half to three feet tall. But I didn't know when I started out, either. She does now. I was glad to share the information I learned from you guys here.

I'm thinking of August for the fall lettuce.

Everything around here seems to be late because of the cold spring weather. We've been quite a bit cooler this year than you are.

Sounds like your friend's lettuce bolted and is ready for seed. Lettuce gets bitter then.

I plant lettuce every week or so. Sometimes I plant it in windowbox shaped planters. I harvest as I'm thinning them, have wonderful tender young plants, and let only a few grow. Or not. The next batch will be ready to "thin" by then...

I hope to get my lettuce planting going like that at some point, too. Just didn't fit into my schedule this year. When I get my indoor herbs going, I might do lettuce as well. It will be easier for me to have all of that right in the apartment.

Yes, the worm hatches from the egg, then starts boring into the stem of the plant. Do you know what to look for once the guy starts boring?

Holes?

No, you need to look for a little pile of sawdust looking material coming from the stem.

Great photo. I'll be sure to look for that. I'm putting you on standby as my virtual assistant if I have to go in and do surgery. ;o)

Oh....that pic makes me sooo mad. I lost a plant last weekend from the little buggers. Sevin the next day...GONE. Sad to no longer be organic but seems like I'm not spending so much time loading up my critter containers (empty plastic bottles of Lipton Green tea) with things I can't bring myself to squish with my fingers!! EEEWWWW, yucky.

Sevin dust is absolutely ineffective for SVB. You can do surgery on the plant and remove the worm. Then you can use a piece of panty hose as a surgical bandage. You can also inject the stem with Bt, an organic worm killer, but the borer has to ingest the Bt in order for it to work. Or, you can inject beneficial nematodes in the stems to destroy the worm.

I used Sevin spray as well as dust. I thought treating the dirt around and under the vines would keep the SVB from propogating. I did hear that once they were in the vine, surgery or toast. If not, I got lucky because I haven't found any more piles of "sawdust" or lost any vines for that matter (knock on wood.)

I read that growing Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) next to pumpkins etc. will deter SVB. Has anybody tried it?

Haven't tried tansy, but I used nasturtiums, radishes, and silver mulch on the squash rows and it seems to help a lot. Of course I'm not sure which makes the difference, but at least I'm getting plenty of squash, although they still eventually succumb.

Silver mulch? Shiny? I think I've read about it and it disorients them. If I'm remembering correctly, it's so bright they think it's the sky and don't know what to do.

I can see now why nasturtiums are a trap crop for aphids. They really do attract them. The ants are herding them, though, so I usually find them in a clump on one stem. It's easy to pull that one stem off and smoosh or drown them. Thanks, ants!

And check this out. I don't know if this assassin bug can catch squash vine borers, but from what I've read, it'll eat the Japanese beetles. I was so excited to see it yesterday on my yellow squash.

Those SVB moths are evasive and hard to catch!

Thanks for the feedback. My growing season is just around the corner, and I'm going to try growing all the above with my squash/pumpkins.

Elsa

I think the point of the silver mulch IS that it disorients the critters, and it's since I've started using that that I've been able to harvest some squash from my plants. Years ago I tried row covers and parthenogenic varieties of squash, but the plants got so big that it was really hard to contain them, or to find the squash when it did appear. It just wasn't workable for me.

Well, I checked the vines a couple days ago and they were fine. Didn't even see any eggs. Checked again today and I had little bits of vine puke coming out at the base of the pumpkin vines. Couple of flies on it, which bothered me as well.

I expected to cut it open and see a good-sized worm like I saw in photos, but maybe I caught it early and they're too small to get a good look at. I gouged around in a couple of places. I hope I got it all out. Covered the bases of the vines with some dirt. I have three good-sized pumpkins on these vines and I really hope I don't lose them.

When I was thinning out the vines a few weeks ago, I noticed that they'd established roots along the way. So if the base of the vine isn't doing well, maybe those extra roots will help . . .

I hope your pumpkins turn out ok dividedsky. Keep us posted if you don't mind because I am also growing pumpkins and other winter squash and could use all the help I can get.

Thanks for the good wishes. I'll keep you posted.

I went to the Gardens Alive website and found some great info and interesting products. One thing that piqued my interest was the syringe containing nematodes- ready to use. Just inject an infected vine and they will seek out the vine borers. Has anyone used this product? Can I order one or two and just keep in my fridge until needed? I think nematodes are usually shipped with an icepack so I am not sure how to store.

I know that when we buy nematodes for the yard, we have to keep them refrigerated and we have to use them within a certain time period, so I don't know how well they would "keep" in your fridge. I also know you have to apply them either in the very wee hours of the morning, or around dusk so that the nematodes have time to burrow into the soil before the sun heats up and fries them.

Ok stephanietx, sounds like I should just hang tight until I need them. Then hit the panic button and have them over-nighted for a not-so-nominal fee.

This message was edited Jul 22, 2009 1:09 PM

They have to express ship them anyway because of the cold packs and the need for the bugs to stay cool.

I found a little bit more squash vine puke and goughed away at it. The vines look stressed, but the pumpkins seem to be starting to turn orange. So that might be natural. It's all for a two-and-a-half-year old. He doesn't know the difference in pumpkins turning orange in October or August, so as long as it happens, I'll be happy. (For you out-of-towners, late October is the Halloween holiday and when we carve pumpkins and put candles in them.)

Oh, I think next year I'll wrap the vine bases in toilet paper cardboard tubes and panty hose because I can't sacrifice having a little boy grabbing a growing pumpkin and grinning.

And grow tansy if it works. The aster family seems to be attractive to cabbage butterflies/worms, but maybe we were never meant to grow broccoli after all. :o)

The leaves may be stressed from the heat or lack of water, too, don't forget that. Just keep an eye out for more SVB indications and I think you'll be okay.

Hmmm. It's been raining but I bet they could use more water, now that you mention it.

Interesting thread, I have a question on the 7 dust not being effective on squash vine borers. I know once the larvae is in the plant it's gone. but *Ive used 7 dust for years at the base of the plant to keep them away and haven't had any wilt and die on me for years now. I do have to keep it up after a rain.

I'm looking for a better way though to keep the squash bugs and vine borers off my plants without using the 7 dust.

Something I can find locally. Think neem oil would work?

Silver mulch seems to work for me - see above. It's not perfect but I now have a freezer full of squash for the first time in years.

I was just out at my other garden today, a small plot at a start-up community garden. Definitely found squash vine borer larvae in a yellow squash plant. Pulled it and destroyed the worm. Doesn't matter because I already have more squash than I know what to do with.

Thing is, they've planted all these pumpkins and promised them to the kids at the elementary school nearby. Don't count your pumpkins until they're hatched - I was telling them as early as February. Lots of things I told them, but they wanted to do the trial and error method. I even got my company to donate gardening books to the project, but no one would flip even one of them open. Frustrating when you get in a group situation and people do things the exact opposite as you would. They insisted that you don't have to mulch corn - because they see fields and fields of it out here with no mulch. Now they're complaining because it has to be weeded. Insisted from the start that they wanted to do everything organic. Then when they started finding out how that works, it was just too much work for them. Can't wait to fulfill my obligations and get out of this one. I don't know what the squash vine borers, squash bugs, and powdery mildew are going to do to all those pumpkins, but I know all of them are present and active.

*sigh* Sorry for the venting.

That is so frustrating! You must be pulling your hair out. I think if I were you I'd bail out; you're not responsible for fixing problems that arose because people refused to take your advice. Reminds me of a board I was on once; I was the only one who had served on any other boards, and they just didn't want to believe that there were time-tested methods of operating that they needed to follow, for good reasons....

I'm beginning to wonder if I've actually escaped the SVBs this year. I only saw one moth flying, and I think I got it. No sign of frass or wilt - and it's August. Of course everything is late this year because of the cold. [knocking virtual wood] Still ... I wonder when is the point when you can be sure the danger is past.

The only reason I'm not bailing is that I'm doing a project for a nonprofit organization that gave us $5,000 for the community garden. In return, they'd like us to document the process in photos and words from beginning to end, telling the story of the project, and sharing that with the community for discussion. I think it's a really great thing, and I want to do a good job on it. And as I'm the only person there who feels confident with a camera, we literally would not have gotten this money if it weren't for me.

Problem is, two people are assigned to the project. The other is the garden committee president. It's August and she hasn't said a word to me about it, made any suggestions about what pictures I should take, let me know when certain people are going to be there working on their plots so I can get shots of them . . . nothing. I think she intends to let me do all the work. I've been taking photos as much as I can, but I'm getting pretty resentful. I could go on and on, but I won't. These people are awful, very disrespectful. I think at a certain point at the end of the season I'll just tell her that she knows where the photos are (and she does) and she can do the community discussion groups on her own. I'm worried that she'll short-change the group that gave us the money and do a crappy job, but there isn't much I can do with people who just don't care.

Completely off topic for this thread, but I'm just so disappointed. Thanks for listening.

"Still ... I wonder when is the point when you can be sure the danger is past."

First frost? ha!

No, I'm wondering that too. I could tell them to put panty hose on the vines and reflective mulch on the ground. But if most of the eggs are already laid, wouldn't do much good.

Or you could complete the project by yourself, your way, and cut her out of the process.

Cooperation doesn't seem likely.