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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Joan Vibert <joan AT windwalker-farm.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: FW: squash bugs
  • Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 09:30:48 -0500


I thought you would all be interested in this. After the discussion on
squash bugs I picked up the Rincon-Vitova catalog and couldn't find anything
specific so decided to email them. I think I might try the Cidetrack just
for the heck of it. Its not in their catalog right now. I'll let you know
if it works. I was surprised that he mentioned the eggs being on the soil
surface since I've always seen them on the underside of the leaves but in my
email I specifically described what I was dealing with and explained these
weren't the vine-borers.

joan
windwalker farm
ottawa, kansas

------ Forwarded Message
From: bugnet AT rinconvitova.com (RinconVitova)
Organization: Rincon-Vitova Insectaries, Inc
Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 02:27:06 -0500
To: Joan Vibert <joan AT windwalker-farm.com>
Subject: Re: squash bugs

Hello Joan,

The beetles are several species of the genus Diabrotica (which some call
Diabolica), The larva feed on the roots of grasses, the western corn
rootworm on corn, quack grass and several others. The larva are attacked
by nematodes, especially Heterorhabditis bacteriophora. At the rate of
100 million per acre it costs about $90/acre to treat. You can band them
on in the root zone area of your plantings.

The adults munch on vegie plants as they come out of the ground. We are
working on some traps using a floral scent or buffalo gourd root powder
(Cidetrack CRW) both from Trece. I can get you Cidetrack for $30 a pound
for whatever amount you want and the floral scent lures for $2 each
(which last about a month). The Cidetrack is supposed to lure from
several feet, the floral lure from about a hundred feet. These you put
in a mechanical trap where they are caught. We are trying several traps:
fly, Japanese beetle, and yellow jacket traps. Dont have any feed back
yet as to which works.

The eggs are deposited in or on the soil surface. I am not aware of any
commercial predators or beneficials for them, but encouraging the ground
beetles like staphilinid or rove beetles would help. Mulch helps them.
Even a pile of cut weeds every 6 feet will help.

Alternately you can use the Cidetrack to lure the adult beetles to feed
on a toxicant. Some possibilities are Naturalis, an insect pathogen, or
boric acid. If the boric acid and cidetrack are in a cup with holes in
it, on a tray to catch any spills it should be acceptable in an organic
program.

nice web page, I hope to explore it further. We have our bulletins up on
ours - so you can get info anytime.

Call for more info...

happiness,

Ron

Joan Vibert wrote:

> Do you know of any beneficials that will take care of squash bug
> nymphs and/or eggs? Not squash vine borers, the beetle-type bugs. it
> is a serious problem here in the midwest and the organic-approved
> pesticides just wipe out all the beneficials and only sometimes take
> care of the squash bugs. Would this be something your neem oil might
> help?
>
> Thanks for any information you can offer -
>
> joan vibert
> windwalker farm
> ottawa, kansas

--
* * * * * * * * *

Ron Whitehurst
Marketing Manager

Rincon-Vitova Insectaries,
P.O. Box 1555, Ventura, CA 93002-1555
805-643-5407 800-248-2847 (BUGS) fax 805-643-6267

e-mail: bugnet AT rinconvitova.com
web: http://www.rinconvitova.com

Biological Solutions for Pest Management


------ End of Forwarded Message





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