Hi Patti,
I found a squash bug tonight. Saw one a couple days ago too but wasn't sure what to do with him. I read up and killed him asap today when I saw him. They say there's not much to do with them, just minimize it.

I trimmed down my squash plants by removing dead ones. Will it not like that or can that be done? I got like 4 zuchinnis so I'm guessing that was good if it doesn't come back. The heat seemed to stop a couple small fruit (or the bugs too).
Anyway, I am getting small bites in my cantaloupe. I"m thinking something else like cucumber bugs or pickleworms? If not, then what is eating my cantaloupe? Can I cut this portion off and still eat okay? (I tried to post a picture and lost all my words so I'm keeping this one short this time with no picture attempt. Any help on doing pics I'd appreciate, I saw someone do one before.)

Thanks,
Robbie

Patti,

Squash bugs are very resistant to the chemical pesticides many people claim will kill them. The best way to "control" them is to destroy every one you find. You can do this in several ways.

First, lay down a shingle or piece of wood on the ground near the squash plants. During the heat of the day, the bugs will congrerate under it. Just lift the shingle or piece of wood and quickly step on and squash the life out of each and every squash bug.

Secondly, carry a plastic bowl (like an old Cool Whip container or something similar) with soapy water in it out to the garden with you. Every time you see a squash bug on a plant, flick it into the water so it will drown.

Third, carry a hand-held mini vacuum cleaner out to the garden. Vacuum up all the squash bugs you can find and then dump them into a bowl of soapy water so they will drown.

Fourth, check every leaf on every squash plant for eggs. When you find them, scrape the bugs off the leaves and into the soapy water.

Remove all dead foliage and pumpkins and dispose of them immediately by burning or sealing in a trash bag and disposing of them with the rest of the household garbage. They absolutely do overwinter in debris, so you have to religiously remove every bit of foliage that gives them a place to overwinter.

Squash bugs are a very severe problem and can completely destroy a crop. You have to watch for them every single day and destroy every single one you find. If you don't, their population will build up to the point that they will kill every squash family plant you have.

Next year, you can cover your plants with a sheer, lightweight cloth row cover (also known as floating row covers) weighted down on all the edges to keep the bugs off your plants. You will have to uncover the plants and either hand-pollinate them and then recover them, or leave them uncovered for a couple of days when they are blooming so insects can pollinate them. You also will have to be vigilant about finding and killing every squash bug you see.

Bagworms certainly are found on cedar trees in the wild, but because most wild areas are not sprayed with broad-spectrum pesticides, the predator insects who feed upon them help to keep them under control. The "trick" that works for me is not to spray at all, or to only use Bt, a biological agent that targets the worms and nothing else.

Also, evaluate your tree's growing conditions. Bagworms, and all other insect pests, tend to congregate more often on "stressed" plants. Try to figure out if your plants are stressed and if that is making them more attractive to pests. Then, try to correct whatever is stressing them.

Robbie,

I always removed dead foliage or unfertilized fruits as well as dead plants ASAP because they will harbor squash bugs. If female flowers are not pollinated, the small squash at the end of the blossoms shrivel and die, and that is common. Most squash plants produce many more flowers than a plant can actually carry to "full-term", so to speak, so the unpollinated ones abort.

How big are the bites in your cantaloupes? Do the bites get all the way through the rind? Usually, if something is eating my cantaloupe it is pill bugs or sow bugs, or sometimes even hungry turtles. If the bites get through the rind, bacterial rot will set it, so you need to harvest the melons if they are ripe, cut away the damaged portions and salvage/eat what you can.

Many pests that nibble on melons are active early in the morning and in late evening when they can do their damage in the darkness or in very limited light.

Dawn

Dawn,
Yes, the bites in my melons are basically through the rind but not very deep at all. I noticed my 2nd cantaloupe had little bites too but they left it alone.

How do I put a picture on here for you to see?

Robbie

Robbie,

The fact that it is little bites make me think it might be something small like pill bugs or sow bugs, commonly referred to as roly poly bugs or roly polies. At first, you will see only tiny bites, but they will come back over time and eat more and more and more.

As far as identifying the pest by looking at photos of the damage, I don't know if it would matter if you posted a photo. Unless the damage is done by a very distinctive creature whose damage somehow looks more unique than general damage, it is doubtful anyone could look at bite mark damage and know exactly what caused it. There are tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of insects in the state of Oklahoma, so it could be almost anything. And, remember, all kinds of pests "visit" veggie gardens and eat whatever looks or smells appealing to them.

In our very rural garden in southern Oklahoma, in addition to gazillions of various insects, any and all of the following "visit" looking for stuff to eat: frogs, toads, lizards, snakes, ferrets, field mice, voles, birds, possums, skunks, raccoons, deer, coyotes, bobcats, ring-tailed cats, turtles, etc. Some of these are visiting to eat the plants, fruits or veggies, seeds, etc. Others, like many of the birds and the bobcats, are mainly coming there to eat some of the insects or animals that visit the garden. So, when I see damage to a plant or fruit or veggies, I may be able to figure out which particular critter did the damage, but I may not.

Some damage IS distinct and easy to figure out. For example, tomato hornworm damage is easy to identify, and so is tomato fruitworm or corn earworm damage. If turtles are eating tomatoes low on the vine, their bite marks are pretty distinctive. Coyotes love to tear into melons and eat them, and their bite marks are also pretty distinctive because of the size of their mouths. Insects come in many sizes, though, and it can be hard to tell which one has done specific damage.

Someone else will have to tell you how to post photos. I've never done it myself and know virtully nothing about it. I know many people put the photos on Photo Bucket or Flicker or something similar and then embed some sort of computer language in their GardenWeb message that links the photo to the thread, but I don't know how they do it.

Dawn

Dawn,
Yes, the bites in my melons are basically through the rind but not very deep at all. I noticed my 2nd cantaloupe had little bites too but they left it alone.

How do I put a picture on here for you to see?

Robbie

Hmmm... somehow my previous message got reposted! Wierd. Oh well......

Anyway, would it be okay to pick these cantaloupe and cut that portion off to eat? They don't look ripe so would they even ripen off the vine for a while? I'd love to save them, they are my only ones.

ps. how many cantaloupes can you get from one seed? My vines are extensive but only 1 cantaloupe it seems so far per vine.

Robbie

Here is a link that might be useful: Cantaloupe Picture

Robbie,

There's no picture there....all I get is a shutterfly sign-in scren.

You can pick the cantaloupe if it is ripe, cut off the nibbled portion and eat it. If it is not ripe, it will NOT ripen further if you pick it. If you pick it before it ripens, eventually the fruit will soften but the ripening itself stops the day the melon is severed from the vine, so while the texture will "improve" after it is picked from the vine, the flavor will not.

Generally muskmelons and cantaloupes produce more than 1 melon per plant. If you are only getting 1 melon per plant, assuming that you have seen multiple flowers per plant, the problem is a lack of pollination. In general, you need bees and other pollinators in order to get good fruitset, although you can hand pollinate the flowers yourself to get increased numbers of melons.

With muskmelons (what we commonly call "cantaloupe" in the USA is actually muskmelon), it is very important that the plants make good growth in springtime and early summer BEFORE they begin to flower and set fruit. During this period, the plants are developing both the underground root system and the aboveground foliage that will feed and nurture the melons. If your plants come out of this period in good shape, they will flower and set fruit. Once fruit set occurs, do not water excessively because too much moisture gives poorly flavored melons.

Muskmelons form male flowers first, and you'll see a lot of them before you see female flowers. The flowers that will set fruit are those that appear on the plants' secondary branches. Your main (primary) branches have to get about 18" to 24" before secondary branches form. Once the secondary branches form, though, you should see a lot of flowering and at least a moderate amount of fruitset.

Often, the melon fruit set IS spread out over a long period of time, which most home gardeners consider a good thing because you can only eat so many melons at any one time. If you want to speed up the fruiting, you can prune out the growing tip of the primary branches so that all the energy and growth go into forming melons on the secondary branches. This is especially important in the fall--it pushes the plants to "hurry up" and produce melons on the secondary branches so you get more ripe ones before the first freeze arrives.

If you have not had a lot of flowers, your plants may be getting too much nitrogen, which gives you a lot of foliage but not a lot of fruit. Or, it is possible your soil pH may be lower than 6.0, and this can result in poor fruit set. I don't know what kind of melons you planted, but most varieties of muskmelons produce ripe melons in about 75 to 90 days from seed, or about 50 to 75 days from the time you set out transplants, if your transplants were about 3 weeks old. As the melons ripen, an abscission layer forms where the melon attaches to the vine. When the melon is ripe enough, a gentle tug on the melon will separate the melon from the plant at the abscission layer. If you have apply more than a "gentle tug", then the melon is not fully ripe yet.

Hope this info helps.

Dawn

Wow, awesome comments!

I will double check in the am. I know they are not ripe as they do not come off the branch yet. I have dropped in coffee grinds a couple times - oops! I keep hearing that extra nitrogen is not good for the fruits only leafy veggies. Wow, am I learning! Oh well, that's what it's for!

Anyway, I'll put some cage or something around it and let it ripen some more and hope for the best.

I thought water would be good for melons since you want them juicy. Another oops. I am watering every 2nd day, so that still shouldn't be too much.

I planted from seed and they have set fruit alost 30 days now. I will check daily. I'm still looking for more insects as well. The birds are always somewhere close by so I'm not sure about them.

I'm still hoping I get more tomatos. I only have like 3 on all my plants, a really upsetting thing to me.

I have been dreaming all night and thinking non-stop about my veggie garden. What a wonderful and not-so-wonderful thing!!! I'm a little stressing to learn as much as I can in time. I still haven't planted my corn even! Yikes!

Oh well, I"ll make it just fine I suppose with or without that corn. The important thing is to have fun with gardening right!

And guess what everyone, I got a cheap $1 iron arch at a garage sale this weekend. It was a beast to bring home but I took it apart and did it. It's not real sturdy but it will be cute between my two gardens so the person must enter the garden area by going under this arch. Now I need to determine what vine to grow up it on both sides. I am thinking of the marguerite potatoe vine. I've divided some to get two started since I only have 2 months left of good weather. Anyone have ideas for a good vine that looks pretty and is hardy!

Robbie

Robbie,

I'm a newbie to gardening too! Last year, I had my very first veggie garden. I grew pumpkin, watermelon, cukes, peas and corn.... I had no idea that cukes and peas needed support, nor did I know that 10 watermelons and 10 pumpkin plants would spread THAT much! I grew up in Nebraska, so the corn was a really important for me to have... the borers really loved it, I didn't get a single ear of it!

This year was much better!! I spent a lot of time learning from the folks here on the forum, and reading books that they suggested. This year I planted veggies that I actually like :) We had tons of spinach, lettuce, peas, zuccini, summer squash, and tomatos. I even had a watermelon reappear from last year! The corn is still the only crop that I can't seem to have for myself. The borers got it again early this year, and the few ears that they didn't get were gotten by Japanese Beetles... I'll give it one more try next year, and if they get it again... I'll probably try again the year after. LOL!

I understand the non-stop thinking about the garden :))) I think we all do it... Don't stress about "learning in time"... The garden is timeless... what you don't know this year, you'll learn next year, and that will help you make improvements for the next year... I'll bet most of the people here who have been gardening for 20 years or more are doing the same.

I envy the steal, I mean deal, you got on the arch!! I have an idea for a vine! Jasmine. I bought a couple of very small plants this summer and they have really done well with very little care! They smell amazing when they are in bloom, they are evergreen (according to the tag - don't know how they'll actually do here in OKC) and they don't require a lot of care. The only maintenance is to direct the vines where I want them from time to time, they don't have tendrills, or suckers, so I do have to tie the down to get them to stay where I want them.

Good Luck... Pleasant Garden Dreams :)

Courtney

Robbie,

I just want to emphasize that melons need a lot of water EARLY in the growing season, but not later on. If you are watering every other day, that is probably too often. Watering deeply once a week is the most they will need and, if you water more often, you run the risk of having big watery melons with no flavor. I cannot emphasize that strongly enough.

Picture your cantaloupe as a 44 oz. Big Gulp soft drink. It has JUST the right amount of sugar and would taste great just as it is. Then, pour your 44 oz. Big Gulp into a 1 gallon pitcher and fill up the rest of the pitcher with water. How does that Big Gulp taste now? Not so wonderful. Well, that is what happens with melons (any melon, whether it is a muskmelon, true cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, etc.). They have an optimal amount of water they need, and anything beyond that just waters down the flavor and ruins the melon. Each individual melon has a specific brix (degree of sweetness) that it achieves in optimal conditions. When it gets more water, it does not create more sugar, and that is why the flavor suffers.

Overwatering melons is a common gardening error, as is overfeeding watermelons (gives you white heart and no flavor).

Courtney,

You didn't ask, but here's my corn advice anyway....there are only a couple of ways to beat the corn earworms and corn borers, and some years they don't work all that well.

First, choosing a type with tightly wrapped husks (like Silver Queen or Merit, for example) helps with the earworms, but not the borers since they bore right through the husks.

Secondly, spraying the ears every few days with a Bt caterpillar killer will generally kill the earworms and borers fairly quickly, although they may do some small amount of damage before they ingest enought Bt to kill them.

Third, you can use an eyedropper to drop a few drops of mineral oil (vegeable oil like canola, corn, olive, etc.) into the silk end of the ears just as the silks dry. This makes it impossible for the tiny earworms to get into the ears--the oil suffocates them, I think, as they try to crawl into the ear.

Fourth, planting as early as you possibly can will often give you ripe corn before the earworms and borers arrive.

Finally, some desperate gardeners put sheer organza-type bags over each ear once the silks are drying (indicating pollination is complete) and tie them tightly to keep the earworms out. I don't know if European Corn Borers would bore through the bags though. Others put paper bags over the ears after pollination is complete, and wrap tape around the bag to close it securely. To me, the bagging is too much trouble and makes it hard to test an ear for milkiness to see if it is ripe.

Finally, if you plant early and the corn earworms and borers arrive and get into the corn while it is still pollinating, you can usually salvage the ears by cutting out the wormy parts.

Then, of course, there's the raccoons, but that's a whole different problem.

And, Robbie and Courtney, I don't think it matters how long you've been gardening--one year or twenty years or forty years--or whatever--you always continue to learn new methods and better ways of doing things. When you are growing a garden, you're not just "growing plants" but "growing a gardener" as well.

Dawn

I found some squash bug eliminator on Google at a place called mr. malcolm's that cleaned all of my squash bugs out after a few treatments to pick up the stragglers I missed the first time. Beats insecticide and hand picking.

I let nature work for me, I have Guinea fowl who love to eat them!Chickens love them too! But they scratch up the garden and eat my tomatoes!