The Squash and Zucchini plants have finally fallen to the mighty Squashbug invasion. These nasty critters have finally sucked the life out of their favorite garden chow and are even now as we speak migrating enmasse to the Watermelon section.
I doubt the Melons will last long to be honest.
I resorted to spraying an insecticide for the first time in my long gardening career this year and I did in fact make a dent in the bug-suckers but it was really too late to stop the vampiric horde. We did get several meals of Squash and Zucchini in so it wasn't a total loss but typically the Squashbugs do eventually kill off the plants but not until August or so. I have never much bothered with them before but I have never before seen them in such numbers that they killed my plants this early either.
My theory on the subject is they multiplied 100 fold last year when I planted all those Water Melons, Cantaloupe and Pumpkins and they came out in huge numbers this year almost right on top of my Squash.
Actually this is a good lesson to learn and a good time to learn it. It is one thing to grow a garden with half a dozen of this and a couple of that but if you want to hit the numbers needed to truly lay food back for a year the dynamics of the thing changes. When you add in the fact that insecticides and the like are not going to be available in a grid down situation what do you do? It's best to figure out these issues now.
So I am shifting tactics a bit and plan on opening up a new garden location and start rotating where the plants the Squash bugs like and live on are planted. I have the ground available to get a pretty good distance between the locations too and it won't take up a whole lot of space. Perhaps I can lesson or break the Squash bug infestations in kinda the same way I cancel out the mite cycle in my bee hives.
I am going to plan on doing it that way next year and see how it works out. So far expanding out the Pumpkin planting into a secluded spot on it's own seems to be working out well so why not try it with Melons and Squash?
Certainly I could try spraying earlier and maybe even make a difference but that would not be productive in adapting for sustainable living if sprays were not available now would it? It's best to find a natural solution if you can.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!
Duct tape. It works - it is the fastest way to get rid of hatchlings, or eggs, altho you might have to loosen the eggs with a fingernail first. I just learned about it this year, & it even works with adults, if you are fast enough.
ReplyDeleteLast year, I battled the invasion with a squirt bottle filled with water & a little Dawn dish soap ( I used the blue original), & I squirted down the dried grass mulch under the squash & pumpkin plants until they were damp. It worked pretty well & even spraying every day or every other day, I only used about half a "normal sized" bottle of dish soap.- M
Anon - I don't think spraying or egg picking is a viable solution for the size and number of plants in this case. It maybe the only option in which case these plants would need to be removed from the survival list because of the man hours needed to accomplish that type of control.
DeleteSo you have an illegal alien problem there too. They seem to show up everywhere by god. LOL
ReplyDeleteRob - Well I have always had them but as I say up until now they were something I could live with. Not sure why they took off so fast this year.
DeleteI wish that I knew what happened here, I didn't really do anything other than spray organic on the summer squash and I don't have any squash bugs. I think something else is going on other than spray but can't figure it out. The big difference is that I had lots of wheat growing in the garden. I didn't rotate the crop and some is growing exactly where I had them last year. I just can't figure it out.
ReplyDeleteSf - I don't know either. Guess I just hit some critical mass in numbers last year. I will either need to try a rotation thing or maybe seriously reduce the squash and melon production for a year or so to break the cycle I guess.
DeleteI was going to suggest soapy water too, though I usually add a little neem oil to my mixture. Been battling cucumber beetles here. But I'd already planned to rotate where exactly the cucumbers are being planted anyway!
ReplyDeleteRuth - The oils and sprays do work, it's just it is entirely too time consuming when you look at the scale one needs to plant to make these varieties a viable survival food in sufficient amounts. When you start looking at 30 to 50 plants of each one person cannot find and remove all the eggs or hidden holes etc. without expending too many man hours. There has to be an easier solution to the problem. Or I hope there is.
DeleteUnfortunately, I think that farming in the past before the chemical era, of any scale beyond the small garden, involved a whole lot of man hours and physical labor. I'm wondering though, what you were planning to do with the harvest of 50 squash plants? :-) I ran over a a firewood zuc. with my Jeep to break it up for the cows and the Jeep just bounced. I can't keep up with more than a couple plants.
ReplyDeleteMV - I have what close to 50 hungry sheep to feed. The Rams alone can eat a bushel of cucumbers a day and swear they are still hungry. I also have been known to sell the produce from time to time.
DeleteThrow some chickens out there, they might take out smaller plants, but they will help you get the number of pests down. If the bugs are getting eaten they won't be laying eggs to terrorize you next year.
ReplyDeleteAnon - Ya know I believe chicken management or more to the point my complete lack of any chicken management is one of my biggest problems when it comes to bugs.
DeleteI really need to get to working on that stage of things.
I've never had a problem with squash bugs, but in years past I was able to control cucumber beetles by scattering radish seed at random throughout the garden and letting them go to seed. Not very attractive as adult seeding plants, but something about them repelled the cucumber beetles and I just let them reseed at will. Always planted marigolds all over the place and let them reseed as well since they also repel many pests. Might be worth a try with the squash beetles.
ReplyDelete