How to use this information

Follow instructions as best you can. Follow the order. Follow instructions on label. Avoid getting anything in eyes. Wash Immediatly. Keep away from children and pets. Wash after every use.

 Garden Pests

Squash Vine Borer

     Description of Insect

1. metallic copper greenish Moth adults,
2. clear winged white caterpillars with brown heads
3. white egg mass laid underside of leaves

     Description of Damage

      caterpillar feed on leaves Tunnels into stems. Vine suddenly wilts

      Attacks

       most cucurbits squash, gourds cucumbers, melons

     Organic Controls:

1. floating cover
2. fandpicking caterpillars.
3. destroy infested plants
4. plant resistant varieties
5. crop rotation
6. reduce food supply by controlling weeds

     Trap crop

       summer squash , potato

     Safe Botanicals:

1. Cayenne Pepper (Tabasco sauce) or Hot Pepper Wax
2. Garlic
3. Pyrethrum
4. Dr. Bronners Peppermint soap
5. Garden Grade DE
6. BT/Kurstaki,
7. Bait BTK
8. Wettable Bt Powder
9. A sample formula for spraying: in a guart water filled near to top add: 5 drops Tobacco sauce 1 drop Dr. Bronners peppermint soap or any natural soap, 2 drops garlic oil or crushed or bought spray on leaves and directly on bug. test for strength to avoid damage to plants. Pyrethrum can be dusted around the plants.
10. A good dust mixture is: 1 part Pyrethrum 1 part Garden Grade DE 1 part alfalfa meal 1/8 part cayenne pepper dust around plants and under leaves, don't water for 24 hrs

     A NOTE ABOUT SOAP:

1. Do not use soaps that are chemically made or that have strange chemical additives or preservatives. Instead use only natural soap, either citrus or peppermint based or best but try herbal soaps which  are also excellent soaps to use. Use only a very small amount of soap and use only when necessary. for more information on soap From Using Soap to Using Ultra Fine Oil
2. I like Dr Bronners Soaps best!

      Natural Predators

1. Predatory Nematodes
2. Nematodes Hb for larvae
3. Parasitic wasps and flies
4. Tachinid Fly
5. Lacewings
6. Trichogramma wasps
7. Spined solider bug
8. Lady Beetles
   

Andy Lopez       

The Invisible Gardener

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