Re: Help! I'm in panic mode!
>Hi everyone,
>
>I desperately need advice.
>
>I've got three large beautiful pumpkins in the garage, donated for an
>upcoming event. Unfortunately at this time every year, Northern Virginia
>experiences a plague of crickets. They are enormous and brown - I think
>they are called camel crickets. Last night I went out to check on the
>pumpkins and there were crickets all over the pumpkins, and THEY WERE
>EATING! Actually I only noticed nibbles on one of the three pumpkins (maybe
>it's sweeter or juicier or has softer skin?). There are several spots with
>1/2" diameter spots where they have eaten the skin off. So far the damage
>is not deep.
>
>These pumpkins will be sculpted, so this surface damage won't be too bad if
>I can get those spots cleaned and dried. I'm assuming the standard clorox
>solution is good, plus maybe a fan. But the larger question is what can I
>do to repel these stupid crickets?? Will a bleach solution over the entire
>surface keep them off? Or one of our other insecticides from the standard
>arsenal - Methoxychlor, etc., etc.? What can I put on the skin of these
>pumpkins that will repel crickets and not affect the surface?
> Another glitch is that we're leaving today for the weighoff, so I won't be
>able to be out there checking every few hours. I have to get something onto
>them, then we'll be gone for a couple of days.
>
>I could try to get the crickets out, but honestly, there are bajillions of
>them. Just as many more would be back in the garage in a jiffy. After a
>couple of good freezes, they will die off, but our average first frost isn't
>till mid-November... Long after the pumpkin project, and far too late to
>keep these critters from destroying the pumpkins.
>
>Please help.
>
>Beth
>
>______________________________________________________
Beth, Do you have any remay? or sheets you can wrap the pumpkis in. How
about a Raid fogger?......or maybe some bait or just a deversion of
something they like to eat more.......good luck.............MB
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