Do squash borers stick around?

I'm thinking of pulling my zucchini that are infested rather than perform more surgical extractions b/c they are looking puny. If I pull them & replant, other than adding bt is there anything I should do to deter these so-in-sos?

Howdy stormy. You've got time to start another batch in your area, if you like.

What you can do is start the seeds, either in situ, or in cell packs and transplant out when they're bigger, then cover them with row cover or if you only have a couple plants use cheesecloth. The adult "vine borer" population will begin to start dwindling soon so by the time you see flowers coming on you can remove the cover and allow the bees to do their pollination job.

Hope this helps!
Shoe

Shoe -thanks & it sure does! My original zukes have not fully died but are definitely chronically infected - older leaf stalks topple & the new leaves are stunted. Can I compost these infected plants? Should I add Bt to the compost as well as my beds? I really dislike thee wet grubby larvae - at least the tobacco/tomato hornworms aren't gooshy - yeeeccch!

I'd feel safe composting your plants. Hopefully your compost pile heats up enough to zap the eggs/larvae, or starve them to death!

Adding Bt to your compost is something I've never thought of before. I think the heat from the compost will null and void the Bt so it might be a waste of money. And adding Bt to your beds probably won't work either because the larvae have to ingest it for it to have an effect. If your beds are just soil, and no plant material available for the larvae to be eating then you won't have any results.

If you like, for extra safety's sake, put your infected plants in a huge black trash/garbage bag, seal it tight and leave it in the sun. That'll roast those larvae/eggs and at least whatever is on those plants will be out of your life forever.

Best to you and yours!
Shoe

I'll chime in with another "thank you, Shoe". Having watched my beautiful squash plants succumb to just about everything, I was ready ro pack it in. I LOVE summer squash, and had many variteies all that's left is one Patty Pan and one Zucchino Rampicante. Have had about 5 squash, total.
So, if I start more, rowcovers will help? I'm desperate enough to try anything. Is there a Squash Dance that will help? My neighbors already think I'm nuts, they'll love it....

OTOH, the tomatoes are happy:)

margo

Howdy, Margo....aren't those squash bugs the worst!? I just set some more plants out Sunday evening hoping to get a second crop w/out the bugs finding them. And yes, the row covers will be a big help, especially if you plant your squash in another area than your previous crop.

I've been suggesting things in this thread that are more along the safer organic lines but if ya'll don't mind stronger weapons then Sevin dust will help as will some of the Ortho Bug sprays. I've never used them before but others declare they work. (I'd be careful not to apply any of it during high bee activity though as we need as many bees as we can get.) And I believe the Sevin in liquid form would be best as the bees may easily carry Sevin dust back to their hives and wipe out the whole family.

I've had good results using Neem oil on certain plants and it is considered an organic tool. It doesn't zap the bugs on contact but rather keeps them from maturing to their reproductive stage, eventually wiping them out. Safer's makes a concentrate called Bio-Neem if you're interested.

Happy gardening!!
Shoe

Margo, I LOVE Trombocino! You should see the huge ones I grew a couple years ago (for seed stock)! (Last picture in the article.)
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/16/

Hi Shoe - you are the best. I read where someone was injected their squash plants/zucchini with Bt solution. Spoke with local pharmacist & am now thusly armed with a 3cc syring & 22 gauge needle to do just that with the new cukes & squash I'm planting this weekend. Sound nuts?
Maybe but I can't use Sevin in good conscience as I too am worried about the poor bees & other beneficials like the bumblebees (haven't seen a honeybee here all summer - no fireflies either - not a one). I am so glad I know what the squash borer adult looks like - red & black & wasp=like. I've seen them in the garden & thought they were some form of hunting wasp akin to "cow ants". Now I'm ready to smush them. We're doing OK handpicking the tomato/tobacco horned catepillars - I love their adult form so I may have to plant something for them to eat in the empty lot next door next year but this year I'm plucking & drowning. Oh, I had DH tear out the crippled zukes (I was too involved tending to them) & he composted them.

My goo'ness you're an early riser!

Glad to hear you are on your way with a second crop. Good call on the Sevin dust, I don't use it either. And yep, I've done the Bt injection stuff but fortunately I seldom have borers (it's the squash bugs that attack my stuff!).

Off to pick for tomorrow's mkt! Heading out before the heat sets in!

Happy Day to All!

Shoe

Shoe wrote;"Margo, I LOVE Trombocino! You should see the huge ones I grew a couple years ago (for seed stock)! (Last picture in the article.) "

Which is why this is all your fault. That is the way it all started....*g*

Sadly, the day after I wrote that, one of my vines dropped (drooped?) dead. I had just finished reading how nothing bothered them...
Sigh.
But, there's time, and somewhere under the pile on the porch is some row cover.....I hope.
I'll put some in strawbales, and some in the ground, and hope for the best. After a bumper crop last year, this year has been abysmal. Six summer squash (5 varieties) made it to adulthood, with one (the Trombocino) still growing.
The tomatoes are doing nicely now, after a terrible start :)

Margo

Hah! "All my fault" eh! Well great! Glad to hear it! That's a fun and tasty plant to grow!

Hoping you get a good crop!

Shoe

I've been growing trombocini squash this year for the first time. I love them! I hear that they eventually make winter-squash gourds, but I'm picking them now because they have such a good flavor--in between zukes and yellow squash. I like to harvest them when they are about 10 inches long--or less.
Boy, are they vigorous. Here's a photo of my trombocini as they make a break for it out of my fenced veggie garden.

They are "vigorous, aren't they?" I swear my one vine giving the kudzu a run for their money, and could be winning! Good thing the trellis is pretty empty:)

Question, tho, I was wondering how mine got pollinated, with no male blossoms open, and no other squash of the proper kind (Moscata or some such?). I'm wondering of it DID get pollinated, here's how it looked when I took it in for dinner. The seed seemed completely undeveloped.

Not that I'm complaining, but I thought unpollinated squash didn't grow, and shriveled up and died.

I was mortally certain that the squash borer threat was over for the year, but today I saw one of those moths flitting around my squash, with evil intent.

I laid my own evil intent on it.

Tell me your spell, LTilton!!

Catmad, I wonder (like you do) if that trombo got pollinated. I'm thinking, you know how unpollinated squash will grow a small squash but then will rot? I wonder since the Trombo grows so large (and fast!) that this one would've rotted also if you hadn't had picked it. It also looks "backwards" to me. The stem end on your squash is swollen and the blossom end smaller; squash is usually vice-versa (stem end smaller than the blossom end).

How weird, eh?

LTilton, spotted a borer moth? Sick 'em!! :>)

Shoe

Spell - I squashed it like a bug!

They're hard to catch, though.

Shoe wrote;" It also looks "backwards" to me."

That was why I noticed, I think. And there was no sign of seeds in it. The other plant (sigh, now in squash heaven) had two small squash, and this plant one, and after the blossoms died, they stopped growing. I did eat them, and they were fine, but small, maybe four-five inches.
I did do one thing to the flower that grew this, though. Without knowing better, I tried to pollinate it with a PattyPan flower, Maybe it resulted in a false, um....pregnancy?? A new one bloomed yesterday, and I left it, so I'll watch it carefully.
A new experiment :)
Margo

"The Catmad Zone" (♫ doo dee doo deee doo-deee doo-deee ♫ ()

I'll be waiting to see what comes out of your garden next!

CapeCodGardner, congrats on the Trombo! You have a good lookin' garden there! You might wanna try letting some get about two feet long and eating them then (as well as at the ten inch size). There is a lot of food on a 2 ft Trombo, and delicious!

By the way, the huge ones won't become "gourds" because they are too meaty and they never get hollow like a true gourd does. However, I've stored some big ones thru the Winter, eventually eating my last one the end of February. (They store well in a cool room.) You can either bake them (actually PART of one as they will be huge!) or what I have done is scrape the outer hard peeling off, using a potato peeler) then the inside is tender enough to use in casseroles, battered and fried, stir-fried, etc.

Happy Gardening!
Shoe

Thank you, Shoe! I will try letting the trombos grow to two feet long! They are just so amusing! Glad to know that the big ones can be a delicious as the smaller ones.
A question about my escapist vines: Should I pinch them back, or will this stunt their growth and result in fewer squash?

If you have room I'd let them crawl up something; they're a beautiful landscaping plant as well as great edible. (Pic below shows a plant growing up a telephone pole support wire!)

If you need to control their growth I would allow at least a couple flowers/squash on the vine before you pinch it back. I never tried pinching them as I have lots of room here. New fruit tends to grow on the vines after the first fruit so you want to allow more growth for more squash. Is there any way to put some posts in the ground and train new growth upwards instead of letting it sprawl?

Shoe

Thanks, Shoe, for the advice. I'm going to let them sprawl as much as I can, 'cause as you said, they're producing lots of squash on the vines. I've never grown such a vigorous, good-natured squash! (But I'm afraid I saw signs of the dreaded squash borer yesterday--I sprayed the lesions on the stem with Spinosad, but have no idea if this will help at this point.)

"a vigorous, good-natured squash"...I love that description!

Crossing fingers that the borers don't win!

Shoe

Okay, would sombody tell me what these awful Squash bugs look like as well as their eggs and babies? I'm new at this. My Zucchinni just died only ever producing one matue vegetable. I don't really see any holes in the leaves, just a kind of moldy looking rot on the biggest leaves and a lot of them turning yellow and then the whole plant laid over and looks to be dying. I had a couple of the male sqash blosoms at first, but then they started wilting and dying as soon as they bloomed. Now I just have these sad little nubs sticking up that don't look to be growing or turning to squash. Help!!

kxm, the male flowers will always do that, "wilting and dying". (They aren't designed to become a squash.)

Here is a link to Bugfiles, with pic and info.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/82/

Hope this helps!

Shoe

I just had an unpleasant surprise today - found a borer gnawing through the fruit of a Delicata squash. It was a pretty big one, yet it clearly hadn't been in the fruit all that long - I think I must have disturbed this one when I cut out another from the vine. Never knew there were two.