Squash vine borer solution

[Christine Lynne]

Last week one of my zucchini plants laid down and died, with nasty looking "sawdust" at its base. I pulled it up, and came in the house for a cup of coffee. Turned on the TV, and there was the Walter Reeves "Gardening in Georgia" show. The topic for the day was, hmmmmm, getting rid of squash vine borers. I tried his method on two plants. I sliced the plant on one side from the base as far up as necessary to where the "sawdust" stopped. Then I gently opened it and took out the white worms. There were two in each plant. Actually, on one plant I cut a borer in half while slicing the vine. Oops. Too bad. Quick death. After removing the borers, I gently squeezed the stem back together, and covered the cut with copious amounts of very wet peat. On top of that I place some bricks, to hold the peat in place during heavy rains. (Yeah, well, that hasn't been tested yet...) The following day the plants looked terrible, wilty, leaves fallen. I thought my operation had failed. However, the second day the leaves had started perking up, and today, about a week later, there are new blooms on both plants!
Yahoo!

Christine

[nedwina]

Good for you! Stay vigilant though- the moths are active until mid August or so, depending upon your location.

I'm involved with an ongoing battle with the SVB myself. Cutting open the stem works ok if you can get in there, but my winter squash patch is really dense and tangled. It's hard to get me, the knife and some swinging room all at the same place without beating up the plants. And I've cut and not found the worm-very frustrating!

Things I'm going to try next year: the tin foil trick, inter/under sowing with red clover (supposedly makes it hard for the moth to get in there) and maybe even spraying with water & dusting with ash (an old school trick I recently read about that makes a thin crust on the stem). Since I have about 25 plants per row, covering the vines with the plastic straws isn't happening...

I also saw some moth lures advertised. That might be worth trying. But like those Japanese beetle traps, you may lure more than your locals!

I've been spraying with bt and occassionally injecting with it, but not sure if it's really helping.

Questions I have that I can't find answers to on the zillion websites that say the same thing over & over:

Does the worm travel up or down? Or is that not predictable?
Injecting bt- inject into the meat of the stem, or is the intent to wash the hollow interior with it?

From my observations, the moth lays the egg on the underside of the stem or vine. So if you're looking for eggs, look there.

Or maybe I'll just go back to only butternuts and fugettaboutit!

[TastyofHasty]

I've been watching my zucchini grow to nice-sized plants, blossom, then wither up and DIE. Auggghhhhh!! Seems like some years are worse for squash bugs than others. Plus, there are TWO kinds of squash bugs; the vine borers, and the others that lay their eggs on the leaves and just destroy the plant in hordes. I've still got hopes for the zuchetta rampicante. There's a Patty Pan squash out there that's actually MAKING little squashes. Maybe it's a moschata (s'posed to be resistant)??

[lorac]

Well My squash did well....lots of squash, before the worm hit em. Then they wilted and started dying off. So nothing to lose, I cut off all the stalks and branches that were dying, and left the rest.....lo an behold, they started growing all new leaves and even more squash.

Anything could happen now! Hope the worms are full now.

[Emerald]

I just went out a few days ago with a large sewing needle and poked it thru the stem all the way up here and there and hopefully poked the little booger to death! The plant seems to be perking right up! But I have gone out and split the stems and cut out the worms before and then buried the cut and it works too. They say that the moths don't care for mint and I have cut handfulls and put over the stems before and it worked ok, only one plant got SVB. But then I have a new spot of mint in the yard!

[nedwina]

Originally Posted by Emerald

I just went out a few days ago with a large sewing needle and poked it thru the stem all the way up here and there and hopefully poked the little booger to death! The plant seems to be perking right up! But I have gone out and split the stems and cut out the worms before and then buried the cut and it works too. They say that the moths don't care for mint and I have cut handfulls and put over the stems before and it worked ok, only one plant got SVB. But then I have a new spot of mint in the yard!

In my online travels I read that some folks go out at night with a flashlight, and shine the light through the stem to show where the worm is. And then they skewer the silhouette. Trouble is, the worm has to be a decent size for that method to work.

[nedwina]

Originally Posted by TastyofHasty

I've been watching my zucchini grow to nice-sized plants, blossom, then wither up and DIE. Auggghhhhh!! Seems like some years are worse for squash bugs than others. Plus, there are TWO kinds of squash bugs; the vine borers, and the others that lay their eggs on the leaves and just destroy the plant in hordes. I've still got hopes for the zuchetta rampicante. There's a Patty Pan squash out there that's actually MAKING little squashes. Maybe it's a moschata (s'posed to be resistant)??

Butternuts (which are moschatas) are supposed to be "resistant" to the SVB (melittia curcubitae) because they have "sturdy stems".

Squash bugs, (anasa tristis) and their nymphs suck on the plant tissues. You really have to have alot of them for any bad damage. Though that's easy enough, if you don't constantly kill them and destroy the eggs. I go around with a pair of hemostats for the bugs, and a roll of tape for the eggs. I also quickly bury the bugs, as I read somewhere that their stink invites other squash bugs. Squash bugs like to hide under leaves & such during the heat of the day-the "putting boards down for them to hide under" trick works well too I've found. Lift & squish!

I think you're right about certain bugs having more of an impact one season, and then not so much the next. I didn't have one SVB related death last year. So far, this year I'm down 4 vines, with a few others showing signs that they're not going to make it.

[GreyMoon9]

YAY! thanks for all the info! hopefully next year I will be forwarned, and know what to do. I just pulled out most of my zukes, and did that operation mentioned to three of the plants I thought I might save.. one is dying, the other two look ok.

[Michelle8]

Mine that I did the surgery on are doing well and making little pumpkins

I have been out on a regular basis looking for more "sawdust" or puncture sites, and eggs and bugs. Yesterday was the first time I've seen eggs or stink bugs. Killed them all. Haven't tried the tape trick yet. I've been scraping them into soapy water.

[Emerald]

Originally Posted by nedwina

In my online travels I read that some folks go out at night with a flashlight, and shine the light through the stem to show where the worm is. And then they skewer the silhouette. Trouble is, the worm has to be a decent size for that method to work.

I am usually out there closing up the chicken coop with a flashlight- so that is great advice! I will have to go and try it tonight. Thanks Nedwina!
Another question-do SVB invade cucumber plants? a couple of mine are droopy this morning- but since most of the rain that came thru MI the last few days missed me by that much and the sun is shining and the temps are finally going into the low 80's I am watering right now to see if that might not be the problem. But if they do invade the Cukes then I will check them too. I figure that poking them with a good big needle would be less invasive than the slicing of the stem.