need help to save our squash from bores. also we are losing cucumber and squash plants to a mysterious wilt type of problem. we have noticed alot of tiny yellow and black beetle looking bugs on the wilted plants. could these be spreading our problem? HELP PLEASE!!!!!

Your Squash Vine Borers could well be your total problem since they can also create the wilting that appears to be a virus. If the SVB and the squash bugs are known to be a problem planting your squash under floating row covers can be a big help, but since you have them now find the larva in the plant stems, kill them, and cover the stems with soil. This web site can be of more help, http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef314.asp

Those tiny black and yellow beetle looking bugs are most likely cucumber beetles. They come in spotted and striped varieties. Their larve are known to carry fusarium wilt which is really hard on cucumbers (I loose a few every year due to these beetles and their wilt problems). I don't know how hard it is on squash but I would assume similar since they're related.

Good luck with the squash vine borers. Seems they affect most everyone and there's no good way to get rid of them.

I've been trying every possible way to kill these creatures and there is no way to do it short of sitting at the edge of the garden and squashing the adults before they lay the tiny, tiny eggs. I've decided not to plant any cuciferous (sp?) plants next year in the hopes that all of the larve and adults will die from lack of food. I HATE these borers!!!!!!

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I've decided not to plant any cuciferous (sp?) plants next year in the hopes that all of the larve and adults will die from lack of food. I HATE these borers!!!!!!

Cruciferous plants are those in the cabbage family. I think you mean cucurbits.

I've had a bad problem with the borers this year, but have still harvested a good amount of winter squash - some are smaller than they could have been though. Luckily, the cucumbers seem unaffected.

I've just found these on my plants for the first time yesterday. GGGrrrrr. With some research I found they are "Striped Cucumber Beetles" (duh).

They overwinter in wooded and weedy areas and then emerge to wreck havoc on young plants from April to June, not just cukes and squash but also peas and corn. They consume pollen then move onto host plants to lay eggs on the base of the plants. The larvae then feed on the roots until they pupate in early August.

The adults not only chew up leaves and flowers, but often transmit bacterial wilt and cucumber mosaic virus. The larvae's feedings kill seedlings and stunt the growth of mature plants. Weren't there questions about squash and cuke problems in other threads this might answer?...purely rhetorical question...

Like Pogo and the others have said, other than changing varieties planted or using floating row covers there are few solutions. Stanard ones are: try a different planting schedule, rotate crops; spray the adults with canola oil or kaolin, apply insect parasitic nematodes to control the larvae. There is a soldier beetle that'll eat them: the Pennsylvania Leather Wing (also yellow and black, but narrower like a lightning bug). Don't know if I have any around or not...do you? The adults also hate marigolds; I need to stick some in--I've only planted nasturiums with cukes before.

One of the wisest gardeners I know, now in a personal care home at 91, told me to mix a handful each of wood ash and hydrated lime in two gallons of water and then spray the plants (both sides of the leaves). Since they're readily available to me, I'm going to try it.

Hope springs eternal and all that.

I have had them same problems for years (35 in this garden) with cucmber beetles, squash vine borers and squash bugs(the ones that smell a little like bananas when you squish them. This year we tried a new method to thwart them. we have raised beds on our garden, 4 ft by 24 ft, held in by 2" X 12" timbers from a sawmill. We bought some pvc pipe 1 1/4" diameter, cut into 10" lengths, five hoola hoops, at a discount store, and 20 yards of nylon net at a fabric store. We cut the net into two 10 yard lenths, one of the pieces we cut in half lengthwise. then we took one of the pieces that was only 36" wide and 30ft long and sewed them together on the lengthwise to make a piece of net 108" wide X 30Ft long. We took the pvc pipes and pushed them halfway into the soil inside the wooden edge of my planting bed. We cut the hoola hoops , so we could insert the ends into the pvc pipe, now we had a frame for my net. We planted our squash. Next we placed my netting over the hoops. In order to keep it from blowing it away we had to staple the long edged of the net to pieces of strapping (thin wood strips) We used 2 10ft lengths for each side. After it was in place, we wrapped theexcess on each end of the bed around a small stake cut to fit inside the ends of the bed. This worked to keep the nasty squash bugs off the plants until recently. I finally had to remove the net for 2 reasons, because the weather has been sooo good here, with frequent thunderstorms providing adequate rain that the plants have grown so big they lifted to net up, and we were getting tired of trying to polinate the squash by hand, or opening the net for bees to polinate while we were on wathc for the nasty bugs. So far so good . We are hoping that the plants are strong enough to withstand any future attacks. We are harvesting summer squash and zucchini, the acorn and butternut squash are forming. We just hope they will mature before harm befalls them. I will keep you posted. I alomst forgot, I have another hint for catching bugs. We purchased some plastic yellow sand pails, then coated the outside with tanglfoot, and put them in the garden, upside down on sticks pushed into the ground so that they are obove the foilage of the plants that are being pestered. You will, unfortunately, catch some beneficials insects too. I monitor the pails, and remove them when they are not needed. You can clean them off with salad oil and a paper towel, and reuse another year.

I have been harvesting more zucchini than I could use over the past few weeks, but then this weekend my zucchini's started to wilt (a la squash vine borer style). I followed Kimm1's advice above (and that of the link) and tried to find and kill the buggers in the vine. I cut the vine open, didn't see the actual borers, so just smushed or cut away everything in part that seemed like it was rotting (the soft part where the borers were eating away) and then burried the stem up about 5 or 6 inches further than it had been and watered them heavey for the last few days. Two plants I caught early (just starting to wilt and not much damage on the stems) and a third that was pretty far gone (stem mostly mush and completely wilted). Of the three, one I am certain is going to make it and give me more zucchini. The other two are also still showing some signs of life, so I think they actually may still have a chance.

Thanks for the info on this Kimm1.

Apparently that recipe for ashes, lime, and water may be old, but it's still used. Just saw it this morning in a recent publication. Let us know how it works.....

Wood ash is just as alkaline as the hyradrated lime which is not a form of lime any good organic gardener would use. I have heard of spraying plants infested by various insects with either a lime/water or wood ash/water (lye) solution, but both can be very harsh and can easily do more damage to plants, and you, then the insects would. It is probably not a good idea to use that.

Plant radishes around your cucurbits- cuke beetles hate the smell and avoid the plants. Worked for me. o_ob

Gardens Alive has injectable nematodes for vine borers. They were originally too expensive, but now they have a cheaper home garden size which comes with its own hypodermic. You inject them into the stem. Other companies may also carry this. BT will also kill borers if you can figure out how to get it into the stem.

I really recommend the injectable nematodes. Also you can order soldier bugs or their scent to attract more (can't remember company- can get catalog if needed). Be careful not to get them at all squished on you since their bite hurts really bad!
This year I used a floating row cover until the squash started to flower. Then I covered the stems with lots of compost. I haven't had borers yet but have noticed little cucumber beetles here and there. I have also had striped gophers nibbling on the fruit and the stems. Luckily I have enough plants to produce well despite them. I have seen soldier bugs and these giant! scarab like beetles with big pinchers that must eat bad bugs. It is always a gamble!