What's all over my zucchini plants?
Hello everyone, I am new to the forum and built my first raised garden this spring. I am located in central Florida and planted around March 20th. The squash and zucchini are growing like crazy but I found hundreds of these little black things on the leaves this week, which I am assuming are some type of eggs. They are mostly on the tops of the leaves in shade of another leaf but also around the stems and base of the plant. What are these and what can I use to get rid of them? I am trying to go organic but at this point, I am just wanting to save this crop. They do not appear to be moving and are just stationary.
- applestar
- Mod
- Posts: 30541
- Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
- Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)
In that last photo, I think I'm seeing yellow poop as well as white/clear looking poop. The dark green poop is from eating the foliage and stems, if this was a cucumber, then fruit skin. The yellow poop would be from eating the flower petals or if this is yellow squash maybe the skin, and clear poop looks like from eating the central flesh of the fruits and/or the ovary of the female blossoms.
My suspicion is you have pickleworm type of burrowing caterpillar. Maybe melonworm is another candidate? Look for wet sawdust plug on the stems and fruits -- usually underside or where they are pressed against something. My only experience with pickleworm was when they were in a cucumber I tried to overwinter -- they normally don't survive the freeze here. If I remember from researching back then, pickleworm will eat the blossoms and fruits but melonworms will also get inside the stems.
My suspicion is you have pickleworm type of burrowing caterpillar. Maybe melonworm is another candidate? Look for wet sawdust plug on the stems and fruits -- usually underside or where they are pressed against something. My only experience with pickleworm was when they were in a cucumber I tried to overwinter -- they normally don't survive the freeze here. If I remember from researching back then, pickleworm will eat the blossoms and fruits but melonworms will also get inside the stems.