FieldofFlowers
Cool Member
Posts: 79
Joined: Thu Jul 08, 2010 9:53 pm
Location: MN, Zone 4a

Squash vine borer attacking green beans?!

I noticed when they were busy laying eggs, I'd see eggs left on my green bean vines as well. I didn't think much of it, (though killed the ones I could find.)

Anyways these last few weeks some of my green bean vines haven't done well. Their stems were split open. I found one really swollen green bean pod with a hole in it. I opened it and found what looked like a developing squash vine caterpillar :!: I wish I could have taken a picture to confirm my wierd experience, but instead in haste I squished it.

If I find any more I'll try to get a good picture.

garden5
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Posts: 3062
Joined: Fri Aug 07, 2009 5:40 pm
Location: ohio

Wow, I never thought about the SVB getting into anything other than squash :shock:.

I just did some searching and while I found out some interesting things about the SVB, I can't find anything that says they like any kind of legumes. Perhaps you've stumbled upon something new.

FieldofFlowers
Cool Member
Posts: 79
Joined: Thu Jul 08, 2010 9:53 pm
Location: MN, Zone 4a

I haven't seen any new ones yet (in the beans), but I will be keeping an eye out.

I've seen the eggs on our cucumber vines, but I suspect they don't prefer cucumbers as much because the stem has a tendency to split open when injured (my observation), which would expose the borer and be bad for it. It could be either the one in the bean pod migrated over from one of the cucumber stems, or it hatched from an egg. I wouldn't know. But yeah, the bean pod borer was quite a startling find!

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gixxerific
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Posts: 5889
Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2009 5:42 pm
Location: Wentzville, MO (Just West oF St. Louis) Zone 5B

That is interesting. I still swear they killed my Borage up front. I pulled it yesterday and all the stems had evidence of borer damage.



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