Tuesday, July 23, 2013

It has begun

The invasion of the squash bugs, that is.



I have been expecting them, but like everything else this year, they are about three weeks behind schedule.  Yesterday I found some eggs and a couple of adults.  I sprayed beneath the plants with Malathion and pulled the leaves, or parts of the leaves, with eggs on them.  This morning I found even more, and again, pulled the leaves and sprayed the underside of many of the leaves that are left.  I went back, made a closer inspection, and found a group of eggs that were just hatching.  I learned that baby squash bugs are green.  
I do fight those infernal creatures, but it's with a sense of resignation.  They've always won, with one exception.  I practically denuded a squash plant getting rid of eggs, and most of it died.  However, one portion hung on and regenerated, giving me squash for another month or so.  That spark of hope, the memory of the only time I lost a battle but won the war, keeps me forging on in my battle with the bugs.  
Other bugs come into my garden, but they are all easily handled.  A little Sevin drives most of the pests away.  Squash bugs, though, bathe in that stuff and it doesn't even faze them.  I sometimes think it must act as an aphrodisiac to them.

3 comments:

  1. Dang--I thought you might escape them this year!! :(

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  2. They look like they have the upper hand. Hope you outsmart them.

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  3. Hope you win the battle there!

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