Squash Vine Borer Covers

12 years ago

The wife and I have been battling squash vine borer now for years and haven't really discovered a good method, other than covering the plants completely and hand pollinating until about mid-August which gets a bit old.

I have seen testimonials on japanese beetle control that if you leave the ends open on your covers and only cover the top and 2 sides as opposed to 4, leaving the open ends far away from the plant, that bees can get in, but the beetles cannot.

We haven't tried it yet, and moths are different than beetles, but what are your thoughts on this? What flight behaviors do squash vine moths portray? Do they fly and land straight on the plant, or can they 'skip' across the ground, hopping through the tunnel covering, in search of their plant.

Also, any other advice on removing this nasty pest?

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Comments (5)

alisande
12 years ago
This weekend I slit the stems on three plants and removed the big, fat borers. I can't recommend this method though, because I don't know if my plants are going to survive.

However, I read that the borers can be killed by using a hypodermic syringe to shoot thuricide into the stem. I ordered some cheap, blunt-needle syringes from Amazon and will give this a try next year--if not before.
cmonkey
Original Author
12 years ago
Yea, cutting the worms out rarely works for us and ultimately we don't get good crops. I have seen something about using a needle to puncture the worm...haven't tried this either.

I have read that the moth has a zigzaggy flight pattern where they survey the plant before landing on it, which makes me wonder about the open ended row cover, or even a 6 inch opening or something small. Mostly I see people saying to secure the row cover tightly so they don't get in though.
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Kimmsr
12 years ago
I have seen nothing to indicate that leaving the ends of FRC tunnels is a means of keeping insects off the target plants and I have heard from some that tried that and ended up with insect pests on those plants.
Slitting the stem and killing the larva is an old tried and true method of control and does nothing to harm the plant if that stem is buried in soil where it will develop roots.
The bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis - Kurstaki can be injected into a stem that has the larva for a short time. Age, of the larva, determines how effective that BtK will be. Some may tell you that BtK is not effective but that is because they did not use it until the larva was too big for the bacterium to be effective.
bobb_2002
12 years ago
Many years ago I had a wood stove and saved all the ashes. I sifted them through a screen and kept them in a metal pail with a cover. I used this as a dust on my squash and pumpkin stems and didn't have a single borer that year. Just be careful with the ashes because they are caustic and will irritate your eyes and lungs.
Bob B.
Kimmsr
12 years ago
Wood ash has a pH ranging from 9 to 13 (lye is about 12) and will not just irritate the lungs and eyes but can burn them, quickly.
Wood ash can also raise a soils pH which could then inhibit a plants ability to uptake essential nutrients. Wood ash can also do serious harm to beneficial insects if not used with due care.