Pumpkin and Zucchini Vine Borer Identification

[woolfj86]

Hi!

I'm gardening in Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn, NY I am looking for some guidance as to whether I need to start surgery stat to attempt to save my pumpkins and zucchinis or if this is another disease or infestation other than a Vine Borer. Below you will find photos showing the affected areas of both plants.

Currently the plants seem to be doing ok, they have good leaves and are bearing some veggies. The zucchini has one good one coming in right now and looks to have a few more popping out. The pumpkin has one really nice pumpkin coming in which is about 10' from the affected vine area which is right at the start of the vine. There are a bunch of roots throughout the length of the vine.

Thanks for your help!

Full view of the pumpkin and zucchini is back and to the left of the photo

Close-up of affected pumpkin vine

Base of zucchini vines

Close-up of affected zucchini vine

Another close-up of affected zucchini vine

[lexusnexus]

Yank the affected plants out. One prevention method suggested by a fellow master gardener is to take a hypodermic needle and inject BT into the unaffected plant stems. I also put down some diatomaceous earth early after planting my squashes, and, knock on wood, I've seen no issues.

[catgrass]

That is vine borer. You can slit the stem, and find the devils and cut them out. There is always more than one. You can put dirt over the cut area, and most times it will re-root there. But once the SVB's have found your plot, there will be more. Harvest what you can.

[Peter1142]

Yes it is SVB. I had them all season last year and most still produced well; I advise not pulling the plants, they can survive. They are all over NY and next year you should take preventative steps. I had success this year spraying the stems twice a week with Bt. Too late for that for your plants. You can try injecting Bt and/or locating them with a flashlight at night and stabbing them with a pin.

[woolfj86]

Well shoot....

Thank you everyone for your confirmation of what I had feared. I will try and get them out and see what happens. I do have some giant gourd vines also that are unaffected as of now. I'm sure there's some tips on here for preventing the vine borers from attacking those too. If anyone has any quick advise I'd love to hear it. Thanks again.

-Jim and Jenn

[imafan26]

SVB rarely attack cucumber, melons, and butternut squash. They might be better options for this time of the year. SVB cocoons overwinter in the soil so thorough turning of the soil after is a good idea.

They are seasonal and the moths fly during the day. They usually start flying around the end of June and start laying eggs. Late June and July is the best times to try to control the larvae before they get into the vines. The other thought would be to plant the vines later so that by the time the vines are growing, they are past the point where most of the damage is being done.

[catgrass]

If you want to take the time to do it, you can lay aluminum foil at the base of the plants-sort of like mulch. Supposedly the reflected light confuses the moth and it won't lay the egss, but if they are already in the soil, you're too late. I tried this one year, and I suppose it worked somewhat, because I made more zuchinni that year than others. It really needs to be done when the plants are somewhat small. Google Squash Vine borer so you can identify the flying object-and kill when you can.