Bill,

Yes they can hatch although I suppose there is no guarantee that they will. That's why the standard advice is to mash them, squish them, burn them or otherwise make sure there's no chance that nymphs will hatch out of them.

Did the thunderstorms miss y'all last night? We got the thunder and lightning but no rain, so I guess they halfway missed us.

Best of luck to you too,

Dawn

My garden partner scrapes them off into a bowl of soapy water.The price of freedom is eternal vigilence.

And the price of good squash is that you have to do a lot of bug killing to get your squash!

I found an adult bug and a few juveniles two weeks ago. Dusted heavily with diamectaceous earth. I haven't seen another one or any eggs since. If this works I will be very happy. Last year they were just awful so I was expecting worse this year, since last year was the first time on this property for squash.

OkieDawn, you are right since I showed my garden partner and her hubby the egg clutch of the SB we are the SB Death Squad. Hurray for OCD!!!

Dawn,
The thunderstorm last evening formed up a few miles to the south of my house, then proceded to Chickasha, and points northeastward. I missed out all around.
I did receive a little of the cool wind off the cloud, but nothing else.
Best of luck,
Bill

This is probably not the right way to do it, but when I see squash bug eggs I usually just tear out that chunk of the leaf and destroy it rather than the whole leaf. The leaf may not look as pretty, but it still continues to function.

Of course, I try to plant those that aren't as attractive to the bugs also.

Soonergrandmom, that's exactly what I do, to. Why destroy the entire leaf? I tear that part of the leaf off. It's always seemed like my smashing wasn't very effective I I'm not confident they were really dead so I dispose of that section of the leaf in my dumpster.

Bill, I was watching the radar after I came inside and became aware that storms were occurring and I was thinking of how cruel the weather has been this year and wondered how close it was to your place. I'm glad the storm missed you, although it would have been nice to have some rain, wouldn't it? At that time, I had no idea that hail was pounding central OK.

Carol and Tracey,

Ha ha! That's what I do too. Sometimes it amazes me just how much alike we all can be at times.

I lack the patience to stand and scrape the eggs off and I hate to waste an entire leaf when the eggs are only on a portion of it. I am not a methodical and patient person either, so hand-picking anything makes me crazy because it makes me stand still for a while. I am more of a "get it done right now and fast" type of person. I drop the entire leaf portion and egg bunch into a bowl of water with a little soap added. Later on, I pour off the water, put the leaves/eggs into a ziplock bag and put it in the trash. There's no way I want for those suckers to hatch out anywhere.

I also bag and dispose of all foliage heavily infested with spider mites. Well, this year I won't. Every leaf on every plant in our garden and yard seems to have spider mites. We are having epic numbers of them. That might explain why we have millions of lady bugs, but I bet the lady bugs can't keep up with the spider mite population explosion. I know it is becasuse of the extreme heat. We're hitting 99 or 100 every day no matter what they forecast for us. I am so tired of summer, and technically, it hasn't even arrived yet.

I try to squeeze in garden work very early and very late, but my natural inclination right now is to hide in the house with the air conditioning and let all the pests slug it out with one another for World Domination...or at least Garden Domination.

We're attending a wedding in a couple of days---an OUTDOOR wedding. What the heck were they thinking?

Dawn

I'm so sorry so many are still having that horrible heat wave. We're under the storms and it has been such a relief.

This looks to be the second year running that our squash fail due to squash bugs. They're so bad that I pick 6-8 off of each SEEDLING almost every time I visit the garden. After a couple days of this the seedlings give it up and die. I am not sure what to do other than keep picking and killing them.

On the other hand, our beneficials seem to be thriving. If an indoor plant gets aphids I just set it in the garden for a few days and they're gone.

I believe Dawn mentioned spiny soldier bugs a while ago. Thanks! I looked them up and will no longer try to eliminate them. I didn't know they were the good guys. I'm getting to where I leave bugs alone unless I know they are a problem.

George
Tahlequah, OK

I was bit optimistic about the storm damage that all bad bugs especially squash bugs might got crushed by hails... but this morning I saw three very bad squash bugs hiding below the wooden piece. I was mad at them and buried in the soil. I am sowing new squash seeds today I hope they will service. -Chandra