These must be the #SquashBugs that have reportedly decimated the local community garden. Well, they have finally come to our block, but luckily, seem to still just be on the other side.

#Portland #Gardening

Some tomatoes today, need to start picking them with a little hint of green to them, too hot for sun ripened.

Found some eggs and hatched squash bugs on the acorn squash today. All were attached to duct tape. I haven't been checking the leaves much or at all, just looking for bugs under them on the ground since it seems to be their favorite hang out.

#gardening #zucchini #July17 #GrowYourOwn #SquashBugs #cucumbers #tomatoes #garden #harvest #MastodonOnly

More squash bug eggs today and I found 3 bugs.

#gardening #SquashBugs #GrowYourOwn #garden #MastodonOnly

Found some squash bug eggs on a leaf of the summer squash this morning. Removed them with some duct tape which works really good. When I was picking squash and zucchini I saw this! Eggs on the zucchini. The sticky tape worked good on these too.

#gardening #SquashBugs #GrowYourOwn #garden #SummerSquash #zucchini #courgette #MastodonOnly

More squash vine borer damage! First hint is this droopy leaf. Look on the underside and down the stem for small holes and/or lumps of frass. Sometimes you can extract the Squash Vine Borer and save the leaf, but this one is too far gone. Often the moth lays an egg right at the base of the leaf like this one did and you have to scrape it off before it digs into the vine and kills the leaf.

#vegetablegardening #gardening #growyourown #veggies #zucchini #squashbugs #svb #pests #squashvineborer

Wish I’d taken a better “before” picture so you could see the small light brown hole near the end of the zucchini leaf. Cut open you can see the small squash vine borer inside - white larva with a black head. This is a small one. Luckily no damage other than this leaf. #vegetablegardening #gardening #growyourown #veggies #zucchini #squashbugs #svb #pests #squashvineborer

Let’s play another round of “Spot the squash vine borer egg”! Can you see it? Zoom in and bam, staring us right in the face! Scrape that bad boy off of there! #vegetablegardening #gardening #growyourown #veggies #zucchini #squashbugs #svb #pests

#SquashBugs, a common and difficult-to-control agricultural pest, need healthy bacteria in their gut to grow and stay alive. However, they do not acquire any bacteria from their parents when they are first born, leaving them vulnerable until their #microbiome can be stocked. Researchers report in #CurrentBiology on June 28 that, to acquire these healthy bacteria, young bugs innately seek out and eat the poop from older squash #bugs.
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/993338 #science #ecology