I've been enjoying my squash bounty knowing that it would eventually come to an end. The squash vine borers took out my pumpkin plants last year and I was waiting for their arrival this year. This morning I did my walk through before work and found one plant looking extremely pathetic. All of the leaves were drooping. Once I thought about it I realized that the leaves were a little droopy yesterday but I didn't think anything of it. I should have known. Well anyway ... it was too late for that plant. I ripped it out and started inspecting the others. Turns out I had a serious infestation on my hands. I found these terrible little creatures in all but one of my plants. I spent two hours digging them out. I lost two plants this morning and it looks like another three won't make it. We'll just have to wait and see about the rest. I hope I got all of them, but I'm not sure. By then end of my major surgery I was getting pretty good at determining exactly where the SVBs were, which hopefully did less damage to the plants.
Squash Plant completely eaten through
An early catch. Here's what to look for. The yellowish substance is called frass. You can't always see it, since it is often underneath the plant, but you'll always be able to feel the gooey glob where the SVB entered the plant. The plant feels dry aside from this.
Carnage
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