How I Won the Battle Against Squash Bugs

In the fall of 2009, I had dozens of lovely orange pumpkins ready for harvest. While attempting to cut the stems, I noticed armies of squash bugs covering the tops. The vines and stems were rotted, and so were all but a few pumpkins.



The previous summer I'd grown all of my pumpkins on a fence with no problems. But the word must have gotten out: hoards of squash bugs were destroying my crop . So late in the season I was left with only a few pumpkins.



This summer I was ready. The first step in any battle is to know your enemy. The nearly 1" long brown squash bugs start small--a tiny, bowling pin formation of eggs on the undersides (and occasionally upper side) of the leaves. Pressing a piece of duct tape against the leaf will lift the eggs with little or no damage. A daily routine of search and destroy reduces their numbers greatly. If you find the small, grey nymphs on the underside of a leaf, simply smash them with the palm of your hand (they don't bite). Or you can give them the "duct tape" treatment. The nymphs generally huddle together while very small and are easy to target en masse. If you come upon a large leaf that is covered with squash bugs, clip the leaf and plunge it in a bucket of water. You may lose the leaf but you'll rid your garden of hundreds (and potentially thousands) of destructive pests.
I've never found an effective chemical to combat squash bugs. The main pumpkin I grow is the sugar pumpkin, you know: pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin biscotti, pumpkin cookies. I found it was possible to control the bugs without resorting to pesticides. Next year I'm going back to the fence: it saves room and keeps the fruit off the ground.

UPDATE (9/30/11): This year I worked during the summer months and spent an abbreviated amount of time in my garden. I never had time to erect a trellis. Despite this, squashes (including pumpkins) and melons were, for the most part, free of squash bugs. My garden once crawled with these devils. I firmly believe that eradicating hundreds of the pests, their eggs, and nymphs was the key. This morning I went through my pumpkin patch and while searching in earnest, I couldn't find a single one. The photo below was taken last summer while patrolling my squash patch.

Adult and nymph squash bugs, moments before their demise, staking out a butternut squash