National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Clean up cucurbits and other plant matter in the fall to reduce the number of overwintering sites.‘Butternut’, ‘Royal Acorn’, and ‘Sweet Cheese’ varieties are all more resistant to squash bugs. Select varieties of squash that are resistant to the squash bug if you have a big problem.Try planting nasturtium and tansy around your plants that are commonly affected by squash bugs. Companion planting can be useful in repelling squash bugs.You can also delay planting your squash until the early months of summer. There is typically only one generation of squash bugs per year, and you can avoid them by covering your plants for the first month of spring. Consider keeping squash plants covered until blossoming begins.Avoid thick layers of mulches like straw or hay that provide an environment that these bugs seem to love.Prevention is key: In the fall, be sure to burn or compost old squash vines to rid your garden of any possible shelters for breeding and over-wintering.It is not necessary to treat squash bugs found in the garden during late summer or fall. Be sure to spray underneath the leaves, where most squash bugs are found. The best time to apply pesticides is early morning or late at night (during minimum bee activity). In the event that you catch the squash wilting very early in the season and you catch this when eggs are hatching, then insecticide application is probably needed to manage it. See your local garden center or cooperative extension service for controls that are locally approved. Insecticides are not effective in managing squash bugs once they are adults, so don’t bother trying. Remove plant debris during the growing season to reduce sites where squash bugs can hide.If there are no more than a few vines infected, keep collecting and destroying the bugs and crushing the egg clusters that you find on the undersides of leaves. Keep checking your plants, at least daily.Squash between two hard surfaces in the morning and dispose of them. Place a board or shingle in the garden at night (or pieces of newspaper). During the night, both adults and nymphs will congregate underneath the board.Eggs hatch in about ten days, so be sure to check for them on at least a weekly basis. Pick egg masses off the plants in the morning and later in the day. You can also simply scrape the eggs off the leaves with a butter knife and let them fall onto the ground, where beetles will eat them.Fill a bucket with water and liquid dish soap and flick bugs into soapy water. Once the bugs are dead, it’s fine to dump the water anywhere. Early detection is critical! You want to catch squash bugs before they grow into adults, or they become very difficult to get rid of completely.The wilting can resemble bacterial wilt, which is a disease spread by cucumber beetles (yet another squash pest), so be sure to find the bugs or eggs and identify them correctly. Smaller plants will die, and squash bug feeding can decimate young fruit. The leaves also sometimes have ragged holes. This causes yellow spots that eventually turn brown. The leaves will wilt because the damage prevents the flow of nutrients to the leaves, and then they will dry up and turn black, crisp, and brittle. These bugs inject a toxin into the plant and suck the sap right out of it with their sharp, sucking mouthparts. You’ll find adults beneath damaged leaves and near the plant crown, where they use their piercing mouthparts to suck out nutrients from the plant. In early June, they mate, laying small clusters of eggs (about 20) on the undersides of the leaves, and the females will continue to lay eggs through mid-summer. Squash bugs overwinter in dead leaves, vines, under boards, and even in buildings. They move quickly and often congregate in groups on the undersides of leaves. Young squash bugs, or nymphs, may be gray or light brown and have black legs. They are able to fly, but they often simply walk around on plants. The edges and undersides of the abdomen have orange stripes. The adult squash bug is a flat-backed insect that’s fairly large (over 1/2-inch long). They are usually dark gray to dark brown.
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