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TIL about squash vine borers & had to perform surgery on my plants (www.almanac.com)

submitted 1 year ago by anakin78z to c/gardening

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After having a fantastic squash harvest 2 years ago, last year kind of sucked, and we never figured out why. This year things started great, but then started going south, with plants yellowing and squash wilting. Well apparently there's these asshole moths who lay eggs on the stem, which then produce these little effers that bore into the stem itself and eat the plant from the inside. Cutting into the stems I was able to find and remove a bunch of them. Cutting the stems didn't feel great... I tried to cut along the grain, but had to pretty much cut a chunk out of every plant just so I could even see inside and prod enough to find the squiggly things.

Hoping the plants survive and thrive 🤞. Apparently next year I should get a syringe and inject them with something called BT. I had no idea raising squash required a medical degree 🩺

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[–] Spacebar 5 points 1 year ago

I think a solution is to do crop rotation. By planting the squash in a totally different/ opposite location and also removing all traces of dead squash vines, the caterpillars won't survive the winter and won't be abundant enough to cause harm the next year.