bug stinging cucumbers & zucs

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opihiman911 Kekaha, HI Mar 30, 2011

I have been having issues with my cucumbers and zuccini squash. They bear fruit, nice 12" cucumbers and zucs, but when I slice them they are full of white maggot like worms. I watched the fruits of both plants and finally caught the bug that is stinging the fruits. You can see below the bug the scab where they were stung. Many time they will get stung when they are only an inch or two, turn brown and then drop. Look inside and it will have the white worms.
Can someone identify what is ruining my beautiful vegis. And a help/cure so I can enjoy my vegis, not the bugs and worms.

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opihiman911 Kekaha, HI Mar 30, 2011

here is a top view pic of them .

Thanks,
Cory

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suunto Sinks Grove, WV Mar 30, 2011

I do not believe that the bugs you imaged are responsible for the damage to the cucumbers. The only true bugs (Hemiptera; suborder Heteroptera) that have been reported to be pests of cucumbers in Hawaii are stink bugs (family Pentatomidae), and your bugs do not look at all like those. You much more likely have an infestation of melon flies (Bactrocera cucurbitae; Diptera: Tephritidae) - see http://tinyurl.com/4uvkxgn for an image of an adult fly and http://tinyurl.com/4qza79z for a larva (maggot) of a related species. You may try contacting your local office of the University of Hawaii's Cooperative Extension Service for advice - see http://tinyurl.com/25cxxhl for office locations.

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opihiman911 Kekaha, HI Mar 30, 2011

Melon flies, not sure if I've seen them over here or not, but I would probally confuse them with one of the several types of fruit fly we have as a major pest over here. The larvae pic looks very similar to what I find, brown mush inside with maggots crawling around eating the cucumber from the inside out.
Any idea what that bug is in my pic? I've seen it hanging around on both the cucs and zucs. At any given time I can find 2 or 3 hanging around mature cucs or zucs. They have wings and fly away when scared. They also hop pretty skittishly on their long legs.
Any way to control/eradicate the melon fly? I use a sex scent lure for med. fruit fly when the mangos are in season. Would that help?

Thanks for the help and info,
Cory

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suunto Sinks Grove, WV Mar 31, 2011

I strongly suggest contacting your county Extension Service office for control advice; I know that the University of Hawai'i main extension web pages have some 'in the can' information on the management/control of a number of agricultural pests. As for the other bugs, I could not see enough detail on those in your first image to have much of an idea other than they did not appear to be stink bugs; the one in the second image superficially resembles an assassin bug (Hemiptera/Heteroptera: Reduviidae). Those are general predators on other small arthropods, and thus often considered beneficial.

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