RE: Enough bickering & bashing--How 'bout some SWATTING? FLY SWATTER 1, SVB MOTH 0

All the pics I took are of the same moth, just different camera positions &
settings. I was going to answer this sooner but didn't and am glad; I
thought you were referring to a blackish blue wasp--I have some flying
around my giant parsley. But today when I was out trimming leaves & looking
for svb eggs (found 3, all in the top 1-2" of the leaf stems of 3 leaves), I
think I saw what you were referring to. There was a GIANT black moth or
something that actually landed on the blossom end of my largest fruit! Never
seen anything like it before, in person or on the internet. It was like a 2
to 3" black triangle, like a Stealth fighter plane. I thought of whacking it
with the fly swatter but didn't want to take a chance with my best fruit
(75+"@ 21D) and it flew away within about 20 seconds. SVB's are only about
3/4" to 1" or so, about honey bee size.

Anybody else see these or know what they are? Tim's in Texas, I'm in NY so
if the same, it may be nationwide?

Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pumpkins@hort.net [o*@hort.net]On Behalf
Of Tim Assiter
Sent: Sunday, July 28, 2002 4:42 PM
To: pumpkins@hort.net
Subject: RE: Enough bickering & bashing--How 'bout some SWATTING? FLY
SWATTER 1, SVB MOTH 0


Personal thanks to you and the pics at bigpumpkins.com. We lost 20 acres
of Prizewinners 2 of the last three years. I think SVB is problem and I
have learned a lot from list on the subject. We don't notice losses on
other varieties in the same field.

Question, the pictures show one waspy looking moth with lots of orange
others mostly black, is there a difference? Can they be all black? I
found a similar creature in the field that had black body and beautiful
almost velvety looking dark blue wings. Is this likely the same moth? I
thought I had done a good control job this year but if these blacks and
black and blue variants are SVB, I have more probable damage than I
thought.

Tim Assiter

Respond to tim@assiter.biz or tim@punkinranch.com.

Assiter Punkin Ranch

Floydada, Texas

"Pumpkin Capitol USA"

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pumpkins@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On Behalf
Of Mark K.
Sent: Saturday, July 27, 2002 5:12 PM
To: pumpkins@hort.net
Subject: Enough bickering & bashing--How 'bout some SWATTING? FLY
SWATTER 1, SVB MOTH 0

OK, lets get back to pumpkins...

It's amazing what a 69 cent fly swatter can do. I posted pics of some
SVB
eggs last week and promised "As soon as I get a pic of the moth (dead or
alive, smacked, swatted or sprayed) I'll post it."

Well, my girlfriend done left me, my new date done stiffed me, but I'm
DANCING IN THE STREETS! My first "trophy" SVB moth of the year and I
couldn't be happier! Build it and they will come? Hey...sit there with a
fly
swatter & they will come! AND THEY WILL DIE!! (No offense & apologies to
any
pacifists on the list.) Maybe I'll pack it in formaldehyde? or olive
oil?
For those who don't have any or can't find any SVB moths and would like
to
take out their "list frustrations", you can always load an SVB moth pic
and
swat your monitor til you have an excuse to buy that new
state-of-the-art
larger monitor you've always wanted!

I posted 4 pics to the BP Photo gallery, they should appear in a couple
hours due to the screening delay. My complete gallery photos can be seen
here:
http://www.bigpumpkins.com/gallery/useralbum.asp?u=11179

For the 10 most recent pics from everybody, try:
http://www.bigpumpkins.com/gallery/default.asp

There should be 21 pics after the moth pics are posted, mostly SVB
eggs/locations, 1020 Papez & 594 Smith mutant vines, multi-lobe fruits,
etc
that are mostly from this season.

See the attached pic for a preview. And on another note, I may have a
"runaway train" on the 1062 Rivard...

Mark



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