In The Organic Garden: The War on Squash Borers

Last summer I saw borers in places I have never seen them before! I live in Zone 4 near the Minneapolis area. This year I have decided to wage a kind of war on the borer. And by war, I mean try to prevent the bugs from laying their eggs in the soil near my plants so that when they hatch the borers are no where near my vines to bore into. 

To the left you see what the adult egg laying vine borer bugs look like. To read more information about them you can go to this web page  https://extension.umn.edu/yard-and-garden-insects/squash-vine-borers                                                                                                The bugs are about a half inch long.                                                               

To start my quest I took two 18 oz Solo cups and cut off the bottom of the cup just below the first "o". You can see the mark on the cup where I cut. 

Here you see the cut cup. I used a sharp knife but scissors will probably work too.

Next I took a clear plastic bread bag and cut squares out of it big enough to cover the cup, then used a rubber band to secure it to the top of the cup. I then used a wooden skewer to poke some holes in the plastic. The holes are very small, just large enough to let in some air but way too small for the squash borer adult bugs to get into the cup.  

I prepped my soil by turning it over then added my organic fertilizer with egg shells and potash. I have a small garden so I only have room to make 2 wells for planting. 

At the bottom of each well I placed 2 zucchini seeds. I want one to sprout so I usually plant 2 seeds. The seeds are close enough to fit into the size of the cup. 

After I poked the seeds into the soil I watered them in, then pressed each cup over the seed area in the wells. 

Since our weather was unusually warm the seeds sprouted very quickly, it took just a few days. ( I checked them daily ) After I removed the plastic I immediately packed in grass clippings to cover the soil. If you don't have grass clippings, pack something around the sprouts so no soil is exposed.  I will also check this daily. After both areas around the sprouts were covered I covered the entire area with grass clippings. The clippings will hopefully deter the bugs from laying eggs anywhere near the plants, but if they do hopefully the young borers will just bump into the outside of the cup and won't find the young vine. 

I thought about a platform to keep the plants off the ground but ultimately decided to put some large tomato cages around the seedling areas. My thought is to contain the zucchini plants and keep the vines off the ground as they grow. 

That is as far as this journey is right now. If you are trying this or something else like this in your own garden I would love to hear how it is going. I will post an update as the summer progresses. 

Happy planting!