RE: Very few bugs.
Beth: I had noticed in the past that cuke beetles usually showed up around
the same time my first blossoms opened, however i have had squash bugs for
several weeks now, i killed three cuke beetles last night and found one
borer egg on a plant that has no blossoms yet!
Glenn Peters
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pumpkins@mallorn.com [o*@mallorn.com]On
Behalf Of rdi@cci.com
Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2000 10:19 AM
To: pumpkins@mallorn.com
Subject: Re: Very few bugs.
Beth Rado <rado1000@hotmail.com> writes:
>I haven't seen very many bugs this year at all!
>...
>One thing I've done differently this year is cut off ALL male blossoms.
>Early on, I cut every male blossom in sight before it even grew, then from
>the time I started seeing females, I have let the males develop, but each
>evening I cut whatever would bloom the following day since I haven't yet
>needed males for pollination.
>...
>Is it possible that because there have been no open blossoms that the bugs
>just haven't located my plants yet? Is that what draws them in?
This is *quite* a good idea and theory!
I've been wondering about this sort of stuff ever since my first
year last year, when I found cuke beetles and SVB, both of which I had
never seen before in my life, attracted to my yard just because I grew
2 pumpkin plants. I was *really* amazed because I'm in the middle of
a residential neighborhood... there isn't a farm for at least 2 miles,
and the closest pumpkin/squash sort of farm is probably 8 miles or more.
The bugs that flew in to my tiny patch flew quite a distance,
and found my plants from afar, somehow. I supposed they "smelled" them,
but was wondering just what it was; perhaps it's the flower as you suggest.
I'd be very interested in hearing what others have to say about this too!
I hope everybody posts their responses to the list.
-----------
Rick Inzero
near Rochester, NY
rdi@cci.com
Did I see bees? I did. [read it backwards]
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