An accidental lesson

I had given up on late plantings of summer squash due to pickle worms. Of course I usually planted around the first of August. This year some the vines ran over into the corn patch and a few matured there. Turned them down just before Labor day. Volunteers came up and with no care at all have developed squash. The pickle worms have gone back to Florida so they are pretty nice squash. So next late August/ early September guess what I am planting. These are volunteers (F2) of the cultivar Horn of Plenty.

A picking of election day squash

You finally beat those pickle worms, eh?

Congrats!

Nice lookin' squash!

Great! Looks like a yummy pile of squash....good idea for all of us fighting critters.

You finally beat those pickle worms, eh?



What's a pickle worm?

Does it have another name?

Is this a southern thing like okra and crowders? LOL

Carolyn

As always from your posts - very good information indeed - Thank You

*grin...

A Southern thing!? Carolyn...YEP!

"Diaphania nitiidalis" (had to go look in one of my books for that name!)

I think they are more prominent down our way. They tend to be borers but unlike the squash vine borer that bores only into stems these things go into stems and into the fruit. No fun!

Why they are called pickle worms? I have NO idea!

Checked it out and seems it takes a particular liking to cucurbits, cultivated and wild. Not a pretty critter, but then we've got some awful ones of our own out here west. . . Janet

Carolyn :
You probably already have more information than you need. But pickle worms are a migratory pest in the south east and up the coast into the mid Atlantic region. They only overwinter in Florida and Texas so most of us can get a crop of cucurbits ahead of them. They arrive here around the first of July. They love cucumbers, yellow squash , cantaloupes and Cushaw pumpkins. Probably called pickle worms because they are so destructive of cucumbers. They have preferences. My white bush scallops escaped them entirely this year.

Farmerdill. . .According to what I read, it doesn't mean you'll escape them next year. . .just timing and how far they spread this season. . .you got a break this year. . .right?

Not really; They arrived in July and finished off cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini and cantaloupes. I had never thought to try to slip in behind them. That may have been a fluke, but I am going to try late plantings next year just to test the theory.

Do they get this far north?

Dyson; They get up into the tide water area but I have never encountered them west of the fall line. Supposedly they ride up on thecoastal hurricanes.

This is good news - one less pest to worry about

Farmerdill, are you still doing this?

My squash look awful and I'm thinking about yanking them, re-tilling the ground, and replanting.

I bet they call them pickle worms because sometimes thats where they show up: in a jar of pickles!

eww....
I don't get squirmy about bugs, but that image got a physical reaction.

Sorry 4paws. I will start a new thread entitled "Hey, what's that in my...."

That's ok...
but you know I will be thinking of that when I'm pickling later this summer...lol...burned in my brain. (ooo, but then, it could be a wicked trick to play on someone...pickle some banana slugs in with something)

hahaha...oh yuck....what a bad picture you have put in my mind...gross. I could just see my grandaughter...Look what Mema canned...hahaha. Twelve year olda are so fun to gross out. I have yet to grow a cuke here. I always get something eating them, you would think I would stop trying...but NOOOOOOOO. One day I will accidentally end up with some beautiful cukes and I will make some bread and butter pickles...yum.

Maybe I should plant some each month and make my chances a little better. What ever it is that gets them...come in and in a couple days all dead.

Is this a caterpillar with the adult being a moth? What does the moth look like? Would nighttime electric bug zappers get some of them? Quarentine Florida with fences made of bug zappers! Yay!

Vi? Is that supposed to be Virgin Islands or Virginia? Good luck fencing Florida in- or even Texas...I have to go look up this beast of an imitation tequila worm...

Kit-did you notice how old this thread is?

No, I was lookin at stuff on the bottom of the threads, hate old threads pop up. Still wonder where she from, Thanks Lisa. New worm for me tho...

She used to post a lot and I don't think there is a zone 11 in Virginia...I hope you look straight a head when your driving.lol

You've never heard of pickle worms? I'll have to check out some info that I have and get back to you. You could google them.

I did ask.com em. ugly, not one I have seen tho. gonna unwatch this thread.

This message was edited Feb 26, 2013 10:18 AM