We have two pumpkin plants growing in the flower beds we have in our front yard. (Each mound actually has two vines coming out of it so technically there are four pumpkin plants.) The ones to the East of the front door are Kent's pumpkin plants and have grown quite large. The ones to the West of the door are my pumpkin plants and are a little smaller but climbing the railing around the front porch nicely, just as I had wanted.
Several days ago one of my pumpkin vines died. No warning, just died.
I figured it was the heat and such a small tender plant couldn't deal with it. I removed the dead vine and did what I could to help the other vine survive.
In last couple of days our big pumpkin plant seemed to be wilting too. I thought it was the heat, it had been 100°+ for the last few days, however, water didn't seem to help it and it didn't perk back up during the cool evening hours. Today while Kent and I were checking it out we found a bunch of bugs hiding all over it. We can only deduce they are the reason our pumpkin plants are dying.
Kent's poor pumpkin:
We have no idea what the bugs are though. If you do, please let me know!
Fully mature bug:
In between stage:
Adolescent bugs:
Eggs:
We sprayed Kent's big pumpkin plant with bug spray and hours later I was happy to see a hundred or so of their rotting corpses littering the dirt. When I went to check out my pumpkin plant however, there still seemed to be a ton of the tiny adolescent ones crawling all over the plant! I had to pour fully concentrated bug spray on them to get the to die but I was finally able to get them off my pumpkin plant.
It is very upsetting to think we could loose our pumpkin plants, they are truly one of our most favorite things to harvest from our garden. A sad lesson learned as we continue to become better farmers/gardeners.
If anyone out there in cyberland knows what these bugs are and how I can prevent them from coming back, please let me know!
Kent thought they might be Japanese beetles because our area is working to rid ourselves of those pests, but this is what a Japanese beetle looks like (so I know our bugs are not Japanese beetles):
As a side note Kent got a call from Jared, the other scout leader today. They were given a two hour window to pick up all the camping equipment. Jared was able to get help from several men in our ward and they all went up to Maple Dell and quickly packed up the camping equipment. (They had to have an escort from the Sheriff's office drive them to the campsite.) Once they got back from the campsite they had to unload all the items on Jared's lawn and do a little separating but all the gear is safe and out of harm's way.
**Edit** After doing some research I believe I have found out what kind of bug we have killing our pumpkins. It is a... *drumroll*
Squash bug!
Read more about them here: http://www.vegedge.umn.edu/vegpest/cucs/squabug.htm
2 comments:
Oh poor sad pumpkins! Tragedy! I hope you can revive them. And I'm so glad your husband and the scouts are home safe. I had no idea about the whole thing! I'm glad the 11 year olds didn't go this year!
Cynthia, this is sue's friend Tammy if you remember me. I was looking at your blog and I do know what those bugs are. We have them too, they are called squash bugs. you can't kill them after they mature only when they are small. good luck next year
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