squash bugs and other bugs

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fremar Comer, GA(Zone 7b) Jun 07, 2009

I've been battling squash bugs since I started gardening 3 years ago, I've used sevin dust but am afraid it will also kill my pollinaters. I've even spent hours in the garden catching squash bugs by hand and killing them, I try to scrape all their eggs I can find and finally this morning I found some black things that resembled spiders but were very tiny under some of the leaves. Question is were these newly hatched squash bugs or yet another evil bug I have to battle?

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stephanietx Fort Worth, TX(Zone 8a) Jun 07, 2009

Sounds like spider mites.

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fremar Comer, GA(Zone 7b) Jun 09, 2009

is that bad?

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stephanietx Fort Worth, TX(Zone 8a) Jun 10, 2009

Yup! They'll strangle the life out of your plant. You might also have aphids. You can spray with a soap and water concoction for aphids. I just put a really good sized squeeze of liquid dish soap (Ivory is good) and a dash of ammonia or rubbing alcohol in a 32 oz. spray bottle and go to town spraying those puppies. Spray in the wee hours of the morning before the sun gets too high or at dusk.

For spider mites, I spray a mixture of compost tea, liquid seaweed, liquid molasses, and apple cider vinegar in water and spray. I've been spraying about every 3 days and seeing some very good results.

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fremar Comer, GA(Zone 7b) Jun 11, 2009

the soap is no problem, and I have unlimited compost tea, someone else told me to use vinegar and then again I was told chili powder would help, there is between 30% and 40% chances of rain for the next 3 days (it just stopped raining a little while ago) should I spray it on even if it's going to rain?

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stephanietx Fort Worth, TX(Zone 8a) Jun 12, 2009

You can try it, but if it rains you'll just have to spray again. You can add some liquid seaweed to the compost tea and put in a spray bottle and fill with water. I'd use about 2-3 oz of compost tea and about an oz of liquid seaweed to a 32 oz. bottle of water.

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