Vegetables Gardening - Growing Organic Vegetables

We had an infestation of these about 40 years ago back when I was still a teenager and living with parents.

My dad used dish detergent and put it in a hose/sprayer bottle and misted the plants with this every day. The bugs have a natural oil covering that prevents drowning in regular water, but the detergent cuts through this and they drown almost instantly.

I can't remember what kind of soap we used, but I also use this for wasps and I just use lemon scented ajax.

Does not kill the eggs, so you have to stay on top of it every day for the entire egg gestation.

The drawback with this is that over time it will affect the PH of your soil and it would be a good idea to monitor that.

---- bhogan20 <bhogan20@yahoo.com> wrote:

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I recently cleared out all my squash plants as they were infested with literally hundreds of squash bugs. I should have been more proactive in controlling them but I planted my squash too close together which made it difficult to get to them. I really had no idea that using this method would make my plants grow like they were on steroids!!! I had a fantastic harvest of squash but it could have been significantly more. Since pulling out all the squash the bugs have migrated to my watermelon and cantaloupe and are quickly killing them off.
Are they laying eggs that will come back next year? Is there anything I can do at this point to help reduce the population next year? Would dusting plants with Diatomaceous Earth be helpful?

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