we're not seeing too many here but while i was looking at the website for harvesting and curing tips they mentioned putting out yellow dishes with water in them to capture them.
no idea how well it actually works, but i'd be interested in hearing how it goes from anyone who does try it.
songbird
We are inundated with squash bugs every summer. I will try the yellow dishes with water. May have to buy some yellow dishes though, maybe I can find some cheap plastic ones.
In our 57 years of marriage we have a service for 12 of the good china, plus some cheaper stuff for every day and then there are the remnants of at least three other sets of dishware.
Our family motto is: keep it clean, wear it out, turn it into something useful, then dump it when it is totally no good. With a large family things get broken regularly.
We just gave the church pantry about two dozen Japanese eggplant, a bag of small peppers, and the last of the kale. It's about time to plant the winter garden, temps got down to the low seventies last night. Winter might be coming our way instead of another summer like last winter. Screwy weather, must be all the volcanoes blowing around the world.
Hi Songbird,
I was "told" to get a metal cookie pan and pour oil in in and leave it out overnight. In the morning to clean out the squash bugs and earwigs that drowned in it. Have not tested it.
I just hunt the buggers down. They do not like water, so I stick my watering wand right down on the stems. The come wondering out. Then I stray them with chrysanthemum (pyrethrin) spray. You have to get under the bellies as they are a beetle and their backs are armor plated. They move pretty slow.
I also check under the leaves for eggs. Smash them with my fingers.
I can't keep up with the earwigs, but their numbers are down by about 90%.
Death to squash bugs; death to earwigs!
-T
Any idea why the suggestion of "yellow"?
in it
spray
Why is it typos only show up AFTER I press send? I think it is the universe making sure a little humility ...
:'(
songbird wrote:
No-o-o-o-o! Any of the target species caught in the containers are likely to be outnumbered by dead specimens of harmless or even "beneficial" insects that reflexively (tick tock: organic clockwork) flew into a brightly-colored potential food source. Lures and traps work because a huge percentage of flying insects react positively to bright colors, yellow, white and magenta being among the most common of flowers. Brightly colored containers of liquid in or near the garden are almost guaranteed to more "innocent bystander" flying insects to their deaths than it ever will of the target species. I routinely keep bowls of water in garden beds for the use of animals and early on discovered the danger brightly colored containers pose to insects. For my purposes (attracting pollinators and insectivores), water white ("no color") or stainless steel colored bowls work best for providing water without luring nectar or pollen gathering insects. Although wasps and bees routinely land on the surface of the water in those containers, I _rarely_ find a dead insect in one. Realistically, I know of no way to eliminate squash bugs and shield bugs, especially as the end of summer approaches. OTOH, a gardener may easily convince himself that he's managing them by learning their habits in order to determine when they're most vulnerable in the garden and by being at the proper places and times with traps and instruments of death (yogurt cup containing water and a bit of liquid detergent). A simple board or piece of cardboard on the ground in the garden is an effective overnight trap and allows the operator some latitude in deciding what to kill, while the early morning hours (early every morning, not just some) when adults and nymphs on the plants are relatively docile is the best time to flick them from the plants into the instruments of death. Dunno about squash bugs specifically but many shield bugs and their nymphs simply release and fall to the ground when disturbed early in the day, making them easy to catch in the yogurt cup.
Remember, though, that the processes described primarily serve to make gardeners and farmers _feel_ that they're controlling the beasts. Relatively inexpensive biological controls exist but the life cycle and mobility of the insects reduces their effectiveness considerably. I suspect the only solution is to finish paving the planet.
for someone facing a large infestation (a friend said he had one pumpkin with hundreds of nymphs on it) it may help for a short span and then see. i would always advise people to monitor the situation and see if it is doing more harm than helping.
i know. nature goes in cycles... i haven't ever bothered to trap squash bugs or many other creatures. it is Ma who freaks out and "Must Do Something[tm]!". but so far we've just cut around any damage to the fruits and ate them anyways.
will be soon we'll have to pick/cure them for storage.
heh, well i'm sure there are a lot of people who do feel this way.
i'm more the other direction. the place i currently live has so much rock/crushed limestone that it seems very sterile to me. if i stay longer term i'll probably take a lot of this out... ah well, we'll see. :)
songbird
T wrote: ...
yeah, if you can do it that ways at least then you aren't having to use any sprays.
:)
...
i would guess it might be the color of a squash or something they like, do you ever see them in the flowers? i really never look at the plants that often or see the bugs to notice. just bees around them and the flowers.
songbird
George Shirley wrote: ...
someone mentioned they need about a month of below freezing weather to take them out. which may explain why we don't see huge numbers of them here. some hide away for the winter...
we get cheap glass plates and glasses because Ma likes to break one once in a while. so when she finds some at the bigbox store we get a few sets so she is supplied for a few years...
in the longer scheme of things, it's just weather and temporary. i'm hoping we figure out how to do a better job of managing things though because the future will be grim otherwise if we can't figure out a closed system ecology to be sustainable for us...
songbird
Hi Songbird,
Earwigs come out at night. And they do like yellow flowers. Although I don't know what colors any bug can see in the dark.
Little Squash bugs like under the leaves and underneath the fruit. They don't seem to bite the fruit. The big ones like down by the stalk of the plant.
The reason why I asked about the yellow is that flies and certain other bugs can not see red or yellow. (Bees sure can!) This is why the yellow "bug lights". Red would work even better, but the neighbors might misinterpret its meaning and cause a scandal.
Death to squash bugs; death to earwigs!
-T
Funny. Since we must eat organic for most produce, it is always reassuring when you find a bug that they produce is actually organic and the seller is not lying to you. Well after the EEEEEWWWW factor wears off.
Hi Songbird,
Actually, nature is not really doing its thing here. In hybridizing plants for better food production, we have create plants that would not make it five minutes in nature.
And nature has noticed. She has come up with designer bugs that specialize in attacking our specialized designer plants. These bugs would not last 5 minutes in nature either.
These plants have also created slaves out of us. For a bribe of food, we smother them with food, water, and protection. Most of them could not survive on their own, especially since we have bread out their thorns and their toxins, among other things.
Death to squash bugs; death to earwigs!
-T
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