Hi All,
Yesterday, I put the knee pads on and got down on the dirt to prune off the extra zucchini pants from my holes. The plants I kept were the large ones at about 10" tall.
I noticed that in the heat of the day, steams at the root had a bunch of unwelcome visitors. Squash bugs. The big overwinter ones. These guys job, besides the over winter thing, is to seek out new squash plants, copulate, and lay eggs, starting the cycle over again.
So I got out my soap spray and now I won't have eggs to deal with. I will check again every day for about a week. This is a TON easier done when the plants are small.
And these big guys, when it is hot, don't move real fast. They are easy to nail with soap spray. And the small pants make it easy to work around.
Death to Squash Bugs!
-T