Every year I painstakingly go over each and every squash, pumpkin, melon and cucumber plant looking for these beasts. I read in the paper back in the spring that stink bug populations were decimated by the harshness of our winter! I joyously read on about a 90% kill off! Like a kid at Christmas morning, I looked to the sky with a dumb grin on my face and thought, "Squashbugs, too!
" The very next day there was a stink bug staring at me while wedged in that really tight spot between the dash and the windshield in my car. Sigh... I handpick and give them the suds every single day. Even in the rain and lightening, because 1 missed day can hatch hundreds of nymphs.
Tonight I put at least 30 eggs, 10 or so green and black hatchling nymphs and a big fat mamma to the suds. ( and my 2nd and 3rd cucumber beetle.
Lindsay 1 - squash bug 0. They'll eventually try to take over and I'll have to pull plants. In the meantime, hemostats, suds, and neem. ( if it'll stop raining long enough for it to dry.)
Happy hunting!!!
