Fighting against insects

[NaN]

Anyone have problems with insects on squash plants? I am having a problem where the flower shrivels up around itself. There are these tiny insects running around when I pull back the shriveled petals. Yesterday, I was checking one of them and I rescued two bees stuck inside! The flowers look good in the morning and then later in the day they are destroyed. If bees became stuck inside it makes me wonder how quickly this happens.

[cassafrass]

What do the bugs look like? I'm guessing they're some type of squash or cucumber beetle. I usually just pick the bugs off and squish them or drop them in a bucket of soapy water. I've also heard that using a Q-tip with vasoline to fish them out of the flower works really well but I haven't tried it myself. And even better, look for more eggs on the underside of leaves or on the squash vine and wipe them off before they can hatch into more bugs!

And squash flowers normally open in the morning and close in the evening, so that's not necessarily being caused by the bug damage. The blossoms also have a pretty short life (only a day or two, in my experience) so they shrivel and fall off pretty quickly.

I've never found bees stuck in blossoms before but I think they will take naps on flower blossoms, so maybe they got caught while they were sleeping?

Good luck!

[Linea_Norway]

Anyone have problems with insects on squash plants? I am having a problem where the flower shrivels up around itself. There are these tiny insects running around when I pull back the shriveled petals. Yesterday, I was checking one of them and I rescued two bees stuck inside! The flowers look good in the morning and then later in the day they are destroyed. If bees became stuck inside it makes me wonder how quickly this happens.

I grew zucchini for the first time this year. Fromwhat I read, I understood that the flowers only open once and then close again. After that, you can remove the flower petals from the fruit. But it is strange that this plant requires some human input.

[SmallCheese]

Could be aphids. Ladybugs and lacewing larvae will eat them. You can brush them off manually (tedious), use neem oil, or a pesticide of your tolerance.

[Weisass]

In my experience, the most annoying culprits on squash are larger bugs--

Cucumber beetles (there are two types) are beetles with hard wing cases, yellow to greenish with stripes or spots. They are little buggers to catch in the heat of the day, but the best time to douse them in a sudsy bucket of water is in the evening.

Squash bugs are shield bugs, related to stink bugs. Their nymphs are small and strange looking, and they move a bit distinctively. the most satisfying thing to do with them is squash them.

[BuffaloStache]

Posting to follow- I went all in on gardening this past summer (loved it), and also had a bug problem. Interestingly, however, we went 80%+ of the growing season with no bugs, and then started seeing them late in the season.

Has anyone tried making your own Garlic spray? something like this: https://www.birdsandblooms.com/backyard-projects/diy-garden-projects/how-to-make-garlic-spray-to-keep-bugs-away/

[GuitarStv]

We were fighting striped cucumber beetles all last summer.  They're a real bitch.  Neem oil and insecticidal soap were the only things that we found effective.