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Is This In Anyone's Repertoire?

I don't write near as much as I used to, but I'm still out here.  I've got
anemic looking plants; a couple are infested with little wormy critters.  I
hate worms almost as much as I hate slugs.  Anyway...growers who have gotten
past their inaugural season know when females will bloom...you just know.
Last night, I looked forward to getting up this morning and pollinating my
first female.  All my others have burned up...I just pluck 'em off the vine
and hurl 'em at my neighbor's obnoxious dog.  It's really the neighbor
that's obnoxious, but pinging his dog is the best I can do.  Gotta keep the
peace.  Story goes...the flower never opened and it should have.  I gently
pried the petals apart...didn't see any worm damage...so I went ahead and
manually pollinated.  I swabbed her with about a half dozen males, then
pressed the petals back together.  I sprayed the base of the plants with
Diazinon...alot of it...hoping the roots would soak it up and kill all my
little worm buddies.  It's now early evening...and the flower closed like
normal...all curled up at the top.  You know how it is...they open for a day
and they close up tight...you would have never known it didn't open.  The
bulb still looks normal...and you all know how quickly they can turn yellow
if things aren't kosher inside.  Is this gonna work?  I know some of you out
there had to have become slightly impatient at some time and pollinated
prior to the female's natural bloom.  I guess I'll know within a day or so
if this was successful.

Also...all my bees are hanging out at the hummingbird feeder...no surprise
there, huh?   They all get in a big hairy pile and it totally amazes me that
they can suck down that much sugar water.  They don't want anything to do
with the pumpkin flowers...maybe it's the little worms waving at them from
deep within the flower...I don't know.  Any suggestions on keeping bees away
from the hummingbird feeder?  I want those bees to work for their
honey...not steal from my birds.

Sorry to write so much...really.  I'm sorry I don't have an entertaining
tree story.  

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