My Nemesis: Squash Bugs

When your squash plants start looking like this:

Chances are you have squash bugs.

Ihave been battling these pests for the past couple of years.

And for the last couple of years,

they have decimated the squash and zucchini plants.

Babies hatching

So, how do you handle a squash bug epidemic?

Short of napalming your garden

(and the other day I considered calling in an airstrike)

you can turn to a couple of possible solutions.

A simple (though back breaking and time consuming) solution

is duct tape.

Wrap the tape sticky side out around your hand

then use it to pull the eggs off the leaves 

and catch the bugs.

I wear gloves while doing this because sometimes I just 

smush the bugs I see.

And I don't really want squashed squash bugs on my hands.

Several bugs and some eggs stuck to the tape

If you just have a couple of plants, 

this can be a fairly effective solution

as long as you stay on top of it.

Or you can go get some Neem Oil

(an organic spray)

and use that too.

I had to resort to that and it has helped,

but populations have exploded so I use tape and spray.

The State of the Garden

These are apparently Mexican Bean Beetle larvae.

We made the choice to pull up the bush bean plants

as a large majority are chewed up presumably by these critters.

We have pole beans growing now so we'll still have plenty of beans.

The broccoli is also gone.

Sadly, the pumpkin plants will also be pulled up

having been decimated by squash bugs

and powdery mildew.

The squash plants aren't looking so hot either,

but at least I can replant those.

The peas are pooping out.

Some of the pea plants got too wet and mushy.

On an up note, I'm going to be a canning fool

(provided I figure out how to can)

because we're going to have more tomatoes than we'll know what to do with.

And we've frozen 17 quarts of squash, 2 quarts of beans (with 3-4 quarts still to freeze), 2 quarts of chopped green bell pepper, a quart of chopped hot pepper

and a quart of peas.

The corn still looks great (knock on wood)

and we have a zillion peppers.

Now, I'm thinking along the lines of fall/winter gardening.

Kale maybe?

Arugula?

Cabbage?