Has anybody tried using a trap crop? Plant some stuff that the bugs really like, and then spray them with some nasty systemic insecticide, or burn the plants or something. So you wouldn't harvest anything from those plants, but you might knock the pest population down. I don't know if that would work in this case or not.

The squash is the trap crop.

I hear they like Hubbard even better than zucchini. Could use that as the trap crop.

Leaffooted bugs love sunflowers. I've had more than my share of those darn things. My sunflowers just started to bloom. I had shoulder surgery about 6 weeks ago. Everything has been let go because of that. So hard not to do much of anything! Waiting for healing. I just had a hatch of the darn things a few days ago, plus a major hatch on my nice pepper plants a few days before of a bug I never saw before. I hope I was able to kill them all. I don't spray anything, so it can be quite a challenge.

I like the idea of painting stems with Sevin. I'm wondering how much that contributed to your success. That's easy to do, even repeating weekly or after it rains. I'm uncomfortable spraying it, or dusting with it, because if it gets on the flowers, your bees are toast. Painted liquid should stay where you paint it. Of course, to those who are concerned about eating Sevin residuals on the fruit, if you apply the paint to the stems, there ends up being none on the fruit.

Slitting stems and covering with compost works for vining varieties, but seems hard to manage with upright varieties. Not sure I can picture doing that with zukes.

I'm always suspicious of trap crops because it would seem that they just attract the insects you least want to have around to your area. Unless those trap crops are laced with powerful insecticides, I can't see that they'd do a lot of good in reducing populations of those you'd rather not have around.

I think that if the stem is well painted, SVB that will land there will die, and then they will not go on to the next plant. I can not disentangle the effect of having taken away a huge pile of leaves, last year killing, and the Sevin this year. The overall effect was a factor of four reduction. Last year the last zucchini I pulled had 24 larvae, but the average was closer to 7.

But I can definitely say that in the past I was making too short slits. You have to slit all the way up, 8 inches or one foot, and then you can open the vine and really inspect all of the inside. And there were larvae up in the stem, perhaps from eggs that were deposited high on the plants, and those I would miss in years past. The vine looks bad after, a piece of tape to make it more or less whole helps.

Those are good points. Thanks. The idea of making long exploratory sits in the stems seems a bit aggressive, though. I just look for frass, and make a slit there. How may times do you have to completely slit a vine, top to bottom? Ouch.

I have wondered about, and never gotten any feedback on, the following idea. Sevin is a bit pricey by the gallon, but BT is cheap. Why not just take a big syringe, and fill the major stems with BT solution? Just pump 'em up. Do they leak? Anyone inside would get killed, and to the extent the BT hangs around, it would discourage infestation. I think there are seams in the stems, so you may have to do the pumping in sections.

Others have had success with a syringe. I have not. The stems are solid, it is not so easy to pump them up.

I'm a little confused. If zuke stems are solid, why are you slitting them?

The leaffooted bugs are already here. I live in an extremely wooded and weedy area. Most of which are not on my property. My friend about a block away had hordes of them on her sunflower plants. I thought I could attract them and spray them. I have only seen one at a time on 5 sunflowers planted in a row. Geez, guys, I only have 3 honeybees at one time in my yard. I'm certainly not going to use Sevin to kill SVB's. How do you know for sure that the Sevin you spray on the plants doesn't get into the squash? Sorry to hear Hubbard's attract them more. I had planned to plant some of them.

I think what's being talked about here is PAINTING Sevin on squash stems. I like that idea specifically because it doesn't fly off everywhere you don't want it (which dusting would do as well). Bees don't land on squash stems.

Sevin, BTW, won't do anything to leafooted/stink bugs. Maybe to the little ones, but the big ones just laugh it off.

The base of the stem is solid or semi-solid. It is where SVB nest and feed. Higher up in the plant, the stems are hollow but there are no SVB. I found it difficult to inject properly. Your needle (the needle hole) has to be exactly in the SVB cavity, or else it does not work. I tried injecting the hollow stems above the short trunk, and that did not work either, the stuff did not percolate. Feel free to test it yourself, and report, if you find a better technique. I never had my own zucchini on Aug. 12, except in my first year of gardening (1997), I thought it was worth reporting. In fact I will have to eat zucchini tomorrow too, I am about to go on vacation.

I guess I've always seen SVBs up where the stems were hollow. But it's been a while since I did zukes (because of SVBs!) It sounds like you tried filling up the hollow stems with BT, and I gather that didn't work. Interesting! Thanks for your insights.

I don't use chemicals on anything. That's why I garden. So I don't have to eat chemical laden foods.Good thought about the bees not landing on the stems. Still so few bees around here I wouldn't feel right even killing one.

I respect that desire. As to chemical-laden foods, Sevin is pretty innocuous. It is not absorbed into the fruit, and washes off the plant and biodegrades quite readily. I would not, however, suggest munching on zucchini stems right after you've painted them!

I don't know much about chemicals. Only that I am afraid of using them. I worked at a nursery in the 80's where I had to spray a back pack full of chemicals every Friday for a year before I quit working there. There were absolutely no bugs, lizards or birds there. Very scary. I have mild COPD. Some of that might be blamed on all of the chemicals I was routinely exposed to.

I too am strictly chemical-free. Last year I had my first real bout with SVBs, and I didn't know anything about killing the larvae and all that, so this was bound to be a bad year.

This year I planted 20 summer squash. Every single one had SVB. I did at least one surgery on all of them. In the end I lost only five, which left me with plenty of fruit to give away to family and friends. I planted 25 winter squash, and none of them had SVBs. Only two of my pumpkins germinated. One got root rot, and the other I missed the SVB on until it was too late.

I have removed all the dead squash from my property. Next year I'm ready to be more vigilant in checking early and often for frass. I'll probably get some BT also. I can deal with 75% success. I'll probably even plant a few more squash.

How do you do surgery?

Zackey, hope you heal fast from your shoulder surgery!

The problem with frass is you do not get all entry points (I always see fewer entry points than I find larvae), and the larva is often an inch up or down if it has been allowed to feed for a while. The metal wire method never worked for me for this reason, and small slits also do not work, although they could work if somehow I were to slit right after the larva has entered. Frass and larvae also have similar colors inside the stem, and if the larva is tiny you may miss it.

From what I have read there are some varieties of squash that are more resistant to SVB. I just don't grow yellow squash anymore. Lost two plants two years in a row. I only plant two, so it was a total loss. I'm hoping this shoulder settles down soon. It's hard to be inactive. BT works for them?

From what I have read there are some varieties of squash that are more resistant to SVB. I just don't grow yellow squash anymore. Lost two plants two years in a row. I only plant two, so it was a total loss. I'm hoping this shoulder settles down soon. It's hard to be inactive. BT works for them?

Agree with the above posters that dusting/spraying the stem with Sevin has contributed most towards deterring the SVB. I have used this practice for several years with great success... being careful to dust ONLY the stem. However, after a rain the dust or spray needs to be reapplied. Also, after the stem reaches about 18 inches, I typically let the SVB's have the plant.

I believe the dust works more of a deterrent -- keeping the moth from laying an egg on the stem. For those who do not like Sevin, I am sure there are alternatives, perhaps some which are organic alternatives. I have not tried the (non-organic) synthetic pyrethrins type dusting powders yet but I would guess that these would work just fine. (Check the label.)

zackey: I slice mine open as far up the stem as they are hollow and as far down as the roots allow - usually 5 or so inches, depending on the size of the plant. The cut needs to be straight in the direction of growth so that it doesn't cut across at all. Then I pry it apart and kill whatever I see inside and generally scrub around with the razor blade, again, in the direction of growth, until I am satisfied that nothing could have survived. Then I wash out the insides and cover everything with dirt. Then I water every day. It seems to work as long as you plan on losing half of your plants.

This post was edited by Creek-side on Fri, Aug 16, 13 at 21:56