Tag: #squash_vine_borer

Post #G27: A treatise on the squash vine borer, final version

 

Source:  U Wisconsin Vegetable Entomology.

Yet another gardening post.  If you have no interest in growing cucurbits, stop now.

This is a rewrite of an earlier post (G09), mostly to summarize the results of this season.  And to shorten it up and tighten up the writing.  It’s a summary of everything I think I have learned about the squash vine borer (SVB).  All in one place.  Off the top of my head, based on what I’ve read over the past week, and what I’ve observed in my garden.  So I can remember it next year.  Citations as to source only if and as I feel like locating them.

Continue reading Post #G27: A treatise on the squash vine borer, final version

Post #G10: Squash Vine Borer: Thinking through neem and considering horticultural oil?

Edit 7/10/2022:  A lot of people find this post every year, when the squash vine borer is around.  This post is years old.  Let me summarize where things ended up:

  • Read Post #G27 for a summary of everything I found out about squash vine borers.
  • Spraying spinosad solution (0.008%) onto the stems of my summer squash every five days worked fine.  Kept the borer out, didn’t kill the bees.  But that’s a lot of work, particularly given that the borer is around (in this climate) for eight weeks or so.
  • For 2022, I’m trying a completely different approach. I’m growing varieties of squash that don’t need to be pollinated (“parthenocarpic” varieties, Post G22-013).  I’m growing them inside an insect-proof hoop house to keep out the vine borer.  As of July 2022, that seems to be working OK.  But I started those late, and I still haven’t harvested any squash yet.

The original post follows.

I’ll try to avoid my usual TLDR style and get to the point.  A later section adds more detail.

I’m not going to try to get systemic protection using a neem “soil drench”.  I am going to use neem oil as a horticultural oil spray, hoping to smother the eggs.

Details follow. Continue reading Post #G10: Squash Vine Borer: Thinking through neem and considering horticultural oil?