Soil on Up: Squash Vine Borers and Cucumber Beetles

Pests pests pests. The garden seems to have one pest vanquished only to be blind sided by another. Some are familiar, while others are not. Every year is so different there always seems to be some new experience that will aid in growing future gardens.

Pictured above is the striped cucumber beetle. I began seeing these little guys a few weeks ago. This is something I'm familiar with, though only really as a child when I helped my mother with the garden. This is my second year of growing cucumbers successfully and last year I didn't have any cucumber beetles (nor any other cucumber pest to speak of).

There has been an on going drought here... though more and more it seems apparent that its not just a local or even statewide phenomena. From news reports the hot dry drought weather is country wide.

Keeping the garden well watered has become a never ending chore. I've been doing my best to keep the garden watered. I used to water by hand using a wand but this can be very tedious if your forced to water nearly everyday just to keep things alive. The solution, though not preferred, has been to use a sprinkler. Its a waste of water, I'm watering my walkways (and the weeds in them), and the foliage is getting wet (potentially bad for spread of diseases). It does save time using a sprinkler and I've tried to counter the waste of water by evaporation at least by running it at night. By the light of a flashlight the sprinkler is rotated to a new location and allowed to run an hour to an hour and a half in one spot before moving it again.

So with all this drought and watering struggle in mind, when I saw my Hubbard squash plants (pictured above) showing signs of wilting I blamed it on lack of water.

Strangely no matter how well I kept them watered they didn't seem to be getting any less wilty. It also didn't make sense that neighboring zucchini or pie pumpkins were not wilting in the same way.

Then I began to be suspicious that this wilting was do to some pest to the plants. The Hubbard squash were obviously stressed out by something and if it wasn't lack of water- what was it?

I remembered reading about a squash pest that would attack the vines of the plant. The squash vine borer! Upon braving the scalding heat and sun I began inspecting the plants for signs of the squash vine borer.

Sure enough that's what it was. Ugh how frustrated do you think I was once I realized this and then having it dawn upon me that it wasn't JUST the Hubbard squash that were infested it was: pie pumpkins, sweet dumplings, and zucchini (both successions). OK, practically ALL my squash plants had symptoms of being under attack of the squash vine borer!

If your not familiar with this garden pest than please let me enlighten you on what I've been learning. First, the eggs are laid in the soil by the base of the plants by a MOTH. This moth is pretty distinct as it has red colorings (I remember seeing it now, though forgive me for not having an picture of it), resembles as wasp as it flies... and its active DURING THE DAY unlike just about any other moth.

When the eggs hatch they larva bore into the base stem of the plant. They burrow up from there. Up up and up. You will see holes in the stem and residue resembling saw dust on the vine of your plant where this creature is active.

It will kill your plant. The borer tunnels up through the squashes center stem, essentially destroying the plants ability to supply water and nutrients to the remainder of the plant. The only chance you have to potentially save them, though it may already be too late, is to kill the larva (assumable the sooner the better) and then mound up the soil around the vines of the plant to encourage re-rooting. I read that using a sharp knife (i used a kitchen paring knife) to cut a slit lengthwise in the stem will help you either instantly kill the borer or in my case, expose them to allow you to kill them.

I've read that usually there is only one borer to a plant. However, this many not be the case- and may depend on the type of plant. Today I spent about three hours in the hot weather surgically removing up to four borers of various sizes from my Hubbard, two to three in vining squash like the pumpkin and sweet dumpling, and one to two in the zucchini. UGH!

Vine borer in a sweet dumpling.

The only squash plant that continues to thrive in the garden has been the french pumpkin. This is my first year growing it and based on my experience so far- its a keeper! Foliage has been so beautiful and growth so vigorous compared to all the other squash. It already has some pumpkins forming and the vines are going on and on non-stop.

Part of the thing to this squashes advantage has been its readily available root growth. Even before the vines touch the ground, root shoots are forming at every possible internode along the vine. Even if this plant did become infested with squash borers, it could probably recover fairly well because of its extensive root system along its vines.