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Can anyone help me? For the last 5 years I have raised awesome zucchini, watermelon, cantelope. The problem is that when they start to produce, they just die. I have notice thousands of what look like eggs on the plants especially on the bottom of the leaves. From research I think these are aphids. They are destroying my garden every year. I have spent hundreds of dollars trying to get rid of them. no luck. do the eggs get into the dirt and come back every year? How do I prevent this from happening? Please help!!

I’m sorry you are having such a rough luck trying to grow your garden.

Tell us more and give us the details. Where abouts do you live? — this will indicate the kind of pests and diseases you get.

Provide more details on the way your cucurbita are declining. I kind of suspect aphids are not necessarily the cause. They may not be all same pests or diseases. Watermelons could be getting wilt disease transmitted by other kinds of pests.

When you say eggs under the leaves at this time of the year, on melons and zucchini, I inevitably think squash bugs and stinkbugs, for example.

Zucchini are also very easily victims of SVB’s (squash vine borers)

Post some photos if you can.

Yes, pictures would help. In general, if you want to have a more hands off garden. You need to support a healthy ecosystem. Plant flower and nectar plants to attract beneficial insects. Provide habitat and water during the hottest months. Other things protect your garden. Toads eat slugs and snails, geckos eat ants and small insects including caterpillars, flying insects, unfortunately they also love earthworms.

Most importantly, always look at your plants everyday. Talk to them and look under the leaves. Identify and treat pests promptly before they get out of hand. Rogue out sick plants, unless they are very special, they are not worth keeping. Healthy plants are the best defense.

If you have to use pesticides decide on a treatment threshold and use the least toxic thing that will spare the beneficial insects. Remember beneficial insects will bring pest levels down to tolerable, not zero. If they eat everything, they starve or leave.

Bt can control caterpillars

Controlling ants with ant bait will control many of the sucking pests. Ants protect them from predators and move them on the plants.

Water is your friend. The easiest and least toxic way to take care of pests is to just blast them off with water.

If you have the same problem every year. Then don't do the same thing every year. Rotate your crops. It might not be the best place for what you are planting, find a better spot. If you have the same disease and pest issues every year, you can look for disease resistant cultivars, rotate crops so you don't set out a buffet for the pests every year. If you can, plant out of season to avoid the peak pest season. If you have problems with zucchini, you can try to plant another crop now, if you have time to avoid squash bugs. You can also use insect barriers to protect plants, but they work by exclusion, so you have to make sure you have a good seal and nothing gets in. Use parthenocarpic varieties and hand pollinate if you use barriers.

Here are some pics, if I did it correctly.

Sorry, I forgot to add. I live in Missouri.

OK — thanks for the pics. Here’s my take:

That first photo — definitely masses of aphids, but your predatory Garden Patrol is on the job — I spot Aphid Mummy Maker wasps already at work. The tan-colored round balls are aphids that have been parasitized by the tiny wasps and mummified as a result. When the wasps hatch, you will find tan balls with a tiny drilled exit hole.

These wasps are really tiny— looks kind of like tiny black ants with clear wings. It’s hard to tell for sure but this might be one of them: …you may find other beneficial predators since there is a significant aphid infestation — ladybugs, green lacewings, hoverfly maggots (looks like tiny green or yellow slugs), etc….



The photo of you holding a leaf — those kinds of damage when they appear on single leaf at a time, are what I identify as squashbugs and leaf footed stinkbugs, and sometimes other stinkbugs having arrived. (Since you live in the hotter summer region, I suspect more of the leaf-footed stinkbugs and squashbugs). They typically feed on leaves and cause damage like this (partial yellowing/browning) and are found in the immediate vicinity, usually mating or in pairs or one female and 2~3 males at a time.

These blurry black spots could be them, especially the elongated looking ones Since there are extensive numbers of damaged leaves, if these pest bugs have been here for a week or more, you may find egg clusters and even hatching events already….

Please check and report your findings. If these are ruled out, we’ll expand our suspect pool….

FOR YOUR REF —
(yes, that’s duct tape )

applestar wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 08, 2017 12:18 am

…
Here' are a couple of photos I wanted to share -- I found a leaf-footed stinkbug egg cluster on... I think this is melon leaf stem, might be cucumber.

applestar wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 15, 2017 2:35 pm

Here is a great example of why it's a good idea to be observant in your garden so you can recognize it when everything looks normal and when something is out of place or not normal. When I saw the black/dark line on the string, I said to myself -- "What is THAT!?" On closer inspection, I recognized the leaf-foot eggs.

Also Squash Melon Cucumber leaves Yellow Dying spots - HelpfulGardener.com

Aha! stink bugs. Now I know what caused the discoloration on my tomatoes!
https://extension.umd.edu/resource/stin ... and-fruits

Thank you for the information. You're extremely knowledgeable. I have had this problem every year for the last 5 years. My garden is already shot this year. What can I do in the future to prevent this from happening?


question #2
Do the aphid eggs get in my soil and hatch next year?

Thanks. It really helps to learn these details… but, you know, your question gave me a pause — do they? … wait a minute…. ???

Seriously, as far as I know aphids don’t lay eggs. They bear live young. The adults may overwinter under bark or in sheltered pile of dead weeds, etc. They can fly in from elsewhere then lose their wings … but … another way they overwinter is the ants shepherd them and keep them in their nests, then bring them out and pasture them on likely plants.

You can get a lot done just controlling ants.

I keep a chem-free garden and try to practice as “organic” gardening as I can. You may get other opinions and recommendations from others … but here goes

From my perspective, aphids are one of the lowest totem pole in the wild foodweb and are not considered to require much concern or attention except indoors during winter and very early spring before the beneficial predators have had the chance to re-establish and keep them in check.

Early spring — blast them off of plants with strong sprays of water, put out ant traps and baits, watch for arrival of beneficials, where possible, cut off mass infested parts of plant and destroy … as last resort, spray with soapy water to suffocate and kill, then rinse off…. I *might* use neem oil spray or other natural deterrent (diluted coffee, very diluted vinegar, etc.)

Back off as soon as Aphid Mummy Makers and Hoverflies arrive, then keep an eye out for arrival of ladybugs, spider hatching events, praying mantis hatching events, and green lacewings eggs, and distribute them to other aphid infested plants as needed….


Your op statement that you’ve spent hundreds (presumably on pesticides) — that may have disrupted the population of beneficials, and only because you’ve let the aphids proliferate, they have recovered to begin repopulating.


It’s important to identify other reasons your crop might be failing. You implied that they grow well but you don’t get to enjoy harvesting.

Zucchini and Spaghetti Squash are susceptible to Squash Vine Borers — they typically produce one or two to few fruits then wilt/collapse.

Melons and watermelons are often victims of wilt disease carried by leaf hoppers and other sucking pests and/or cucumber beetles and yes squashbugs and other stinkbugs. But in my garden, it’s the larger spotted cucumber beetles (that arrive later than the smaller striped cucumber beetles, just before the stinkbugs) that are the most likely perps.

etc.

One other possibility that drew my eyes— just beyond your trellis, there is a huge expanse of what looks like grass, grass, grass — no broadleaf weeds.

Is that part of your property? How is the herbicide etc. being applied and what kind? Could your garden have been affected?

Yes, preserving beneficial insects and attracting them to your garden does go a long way. The other thing was as I understand that you have grown the same things every year for five years with the same results. Could it be you are making the same mistakes over and over again because you have not made any adjustments to change they way you garden to avoid the problems. Zucchini, watermelon, and cantaloupe are all in the same family, so they would have the same pests.

Aphids are one of the easiest to control. It is predictable that they will appear early in the season when new growth appears. Putting out new ant bait is the first thing to do and I have not had to do anything else. Even my trap plants (fennel, dill, and marigolds) don't even get any aphids.

Alyssum is the main plant in my pollen and nectar garden. It is a long blooming plant and attracts hover flies and other beneficial insects

I plant cucurbits, but I space them out. Zucchini is the worst for attracting pests, so it is actually in the side yard very far away from the cucumbers. Bitter melon is wild in my yard, but even it will be stung by fruit flies if it is anywhere near the zucchini. I currently have 5 cucumbers, but I am going down to three, since I don't need that many. They are not planted next to each other. I have other plants between them. It slows the spread of pests and disease, but it does not stop it. It does give me time to figure out what the problem is before it hits the next one.

I always look under the leaves when I am watering the plants every day. Growing healthy disease resistant plants are always the first line of defense. Water is the most common method of control and hand picking.

I have built a good garden patrol with the flower and nectar garden attracting hover flies and parasitic wasps. I have geckos that control some of the larger insects and bugs. I do plant the same things every year, but I rotate in time and select the most disease resistant cultivars. Fennel is usually in the garden as a trap plant. It does have to be planted 10 ft away from everything else. It attracts aphids, but it will also attract ladybugs to eat the aphids. A healthy fennel is not bothered by aphids. Unfortunately, it does not control black aphids. I use nasturtiums for black aphids, but this year, they left the nasturtiums alone and went for the onions that were not in a happy place.

I only resort to chemicals when I have to, but I try to be selective in what I treat and try to preserve the beneficial insects and predators as much as possible. I do have pests. White flies, thrips, mites, and scale. I don't expect to totally get rid of them, just keep them at a tolerable level. My other choice would be to get rid of the plants that are magnets (citrus, orchids, plumeria, gardenia, peppers, basil, jasmine, roses and hibiscus) I am not willing to do that, but since I know they have problems, I check them more often, and treat them as needed.