Garden Pests and Diseases: Friend or Foe #3, 0 by Night_Bloom

Night_Bloom wrote:
paani - squash vine borers cement their eggs to the squash stem or nearby. The best thing to do is to spray the stem area with something like pyrethrin. Pyrethrin is a natural pesticide that is derived from plants (Chrysanthimum, I believe). It is very short-lived, so you might have to spray the stem every few days, but the chemical does break down quickly in the environment so should not harm much of anything else if you keep the application to the stems. The squash vine borer may go after cucumber and melon, but that usually happens only when something they like better isn't available.

If the plants do get infected, make sure they are destroyed at the end of the season. You can try to save the plants by trying to dig out the worms or stick them to kill them, but this is tricky business and sometimes doesn't work. Look for frass to indicate larva activity and then cut the larvae out. Bury the stem afterwards. Like tomatoes, burried areas of vine often produce new roots, so burying the stem might be a good thing. You can also drop Bt or nematodes into the holes. the squash plant tissues should suck the stuff up.

This year, I'm trying a pine straw mulch to cover the base of the vines. Next year if your grarden has the room, you might wish to plant a trap crop like one or two Hubbard squash. The squash vine borers like this best and will attack that instead. Then just destroy the Hubbard squash plant later on.

I don't know if this was helpful or not, but it's pretty much all the info I have.


konkreteblonde - as far as I know crane fly adults don't eat anything, and most crane fly larvae live in water or moist soil/ organic matter. A few are pests, but those are rare. Some craneflies do elaborate dances to attract mates. These are harmless and even though they somewhat resemble mosquitoes, they don't bite.


Okay today we have a critter that bites. Centipedes (Chilopoda) like to hide under log piles and leaf litter. They are good predators, but will bite if provoked. The bite resembles a wasp sting I've been told and shouldn't do any lasting damage. Centipedes are distinguished by having one pair of legs per segment and being quick moving. This distinguishes them from millipedes (Diplopoda) which have two pairs of legs per body segment and generally move quite slowly. Millipedes also tend to be more rounded and have their legs more under their body. They also usually curl up if disturbed.

This is one of the most commonly encountered of the centipedes - the house centipede. They sometimes get into homes. This one was cruising my basement where I left it to hunt insects in peace.