Reply #9: Hi, neighbor. [View All]

[bvar22]

Last year wasn't too bad here.
I was patting myself on the back, taking credit for all the things we had started doing to minimize the Squash Bugs...removing mulch and debris in the Winter (Squash Bugs over Winter in this layer), isolating the Squash Plants, clear perimeters around the Zucchini to make spotting and picking bugs easier, daily vigilance...

Some of them probably helped, but I now believe it had more to do with the Spring weather.
In addition to a Bumper Crop of Strawberries (and other berries and fruit), we also have an abundance of moths....hence the Vine Borers.
In addition to larger swarms of moths around lights and on the TV at night,
we also have had these:

An infant Luna Moth which we found drying its wings on the floor of our wood shop in the middle of the day. We carefully transferred it to a box, and set it free at twilight. I missed the shot of it flying off into the twilight. In our 4 Springs here, we have only seen one other Luna Moth.

And then there was this one, as yet unidentified:

Beautiful.
So its been a good year so far for moths.

Some of the suggestions in this thread are great, but the one I'm attracted to is simply planting a Zucchini crop sometime in Mid-July to avoid the larval stage of the Borer.


Check your PM.
:hi: