CLOSED: bugs

yuck

You have aphids, common name is plant lice. They have such soft bodies, that soapy water will dessicate them. It is hard to get all of them and they reproduce so fast that you will see them again. Just be vigilant. A tablespoon of dish soap to a gallon of water in a sprayer will work just fine. No need for the hard stuff. Beneficial insects that prey on them are numerous...

Thanks! I thought they looked like Aphids but being so new, I didn't realize they liked veggies too:)

Somermoone - Do you know what the beneficial insects look like (other than the adult ladybug)? There's lots of them, and I would be glad to share that informaton if you are interested in watching for them. The soapy water kills many of them too.

Sure you can send them to me...I'm going to spend a lot of time reading and figuring this whole thing out this winter:) My squash are covered with them so I need to do something...I heard putting mint by the plants...aphids don't like it...it seemed to work with my yellow rose. I just put the container of mint next to it. I'll move it next to the squash for awhile.

The companion planting thing that I found worked was planting basil with tomatoes. I've never had tomato hornworms since.

OK, you know about adult ladybugs. Do you know what their larvae look like? They eat aphids, voraciously. Then there are the larvae of the green lacewing. The adult feeds on nectar and pollen, but lays eggs in aphid colonies, where they feed on the aphids. Syrphid flies (AKA hover flies, because they hover over flowers) also feed on nectar and pollen, but lay eggs in aphid colonies, which then feed on aphids. There is a wonderful tiny wasp (doesn't sting people) that lays eggs in aphids, which then hatch, eat out the insides of the aphids, pupate inside, and then, after cutting a perfectly circular hole in the aphid, emerge as adult wasps, mate, and then each female will lay an egg in another 100 aphids! Just think about that exponentially! You'll know they are there when you see aphids that look brown and swollen. They are dead (called mummies) and the baby wasp is in there doing its thing.
These are so effective, that when my hibiscus gets aphids in the spring, I leave them alone, because the beneficials come to munch and reproduce. It is a nursery for them - after which they fan out into my garden and locate other aphids. Of course, when the aphids are gone, they move on to someone's garden where there are aphids. I usually cannot find a single aphid in my yard in the summer. To be honest, I also don't grow plants that are always infested with aphids, except for parsley and some of the butterfly larval food plants. But the beneficials mostly take care of that, too.

Here's a site that shows a few of the beneficials. There are other colorations for the ladybug larva and the syrphid fly larva. But this is the body shape you'll look for.

http://entweb.clemson.edu/cuentres/cesheets/benefici/

And here is a site that has lots of photos of beneficials of all types (including spiders). They don't all eat aphids, but they eat or parasitize insects of some type.

http://pmo.umext.maine.edu/Homeowner/beneficials03172005A.html

Thanks so much! I really do need to check things out. That is my winter goal. I can't figure out why the zucchini and the squash on the ground are dying from the end inward.

You might have blossom-end rot which is caused chiefly by a calcium deficiency.

There are calcium sprays and treatments out there. I hope some others have good advice for your area! :-)

This message was edited Aug 9, 2006 11:39 PM

That could be...I just planted..I didn't amend the soil...it's probably in dire need of lots of things. Thanks!

The fruit or the vine - dying from the end inward? Blossom end rot is on the end of the fruit. The vine would be another thing....Maybe squash vine borer.

It is the end of the fruit from the blossom towards the vine

As nifty said - blossom end rot. Usually caused by uneven watering. Usually the calcium is available in the soil, but because of uneven watering practices, it is not available to the plant when it is necessary to form the fruit properly. The lack of calcium produces the blossom end rot. You might have a soil test done to check for calcium deficiiency, or if you know that you have been watering off and on, but allowing the soil to dry out too much between waterings, just correct that....And as nifty said, there are calcium sprays, but this is your quick fix for a symptom and not the long term fix.

Here's a good web site that explains more about blossom end rot:
http://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheets/HGIC1321.htm

thanks