the plague!!!

this year, i was really planning to have a pumpkin that was at least a few hundred pounds (2 or 300), large enough to take to the local Fair at the end of the summer.  

i got awesome seed stock from kind people around the country.

i prepped the soil well.

i started the seeds indoors and coddled them with seaweed fertilizer and so on.  

introduced them slowly to the outdoors.

what do you think happened?

freaking cucumber beetles.  

never had a problem with them before.

noticed them last year for the first time -- they nibbled slightly on some of the pumpkin skins themselves, but didn't cause any major damage.

this year, they are DEVOURING my pumpkin plants and won't go away!

i have been spraying insecticidal soap like a fiend, spraying hot pepper wax ... it may work for a few hours or maybe a day or two, and then the beetles are back.

the other day, they were just swarming all over my prize pumpkin, at least a dozen of them, and they kept coming right back no matter how much i sprayed.  

finally i went inside and made up a concoction of straight red pepper flakes and atomic hot sauce with a little water, and doused the entire plant in it, since i feared it was a lost cause anyway.

i didn't notice beetles for a day or two, but i'm sure they'll be back again.

miserable bugs.  it figures.

i feel like i will end up with NO pumpkins this year, at this rate.

no wonder why people spray poison all over everything.

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