unknown bug eating my pumpkins

Discussion in 'Garden Pest Management and Identification' started by punkin patch, Jul 10, 2008.

  1. punkin patch

    punkin patch Member

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    Richmond, Va USA
    My garden has been virtually bug free (except for some friendly bugs) since day 1. Now I head out there today and find some little bugs underneath a few of the pumpkin vine leaves. They were gray with very defined black legs and antennae. sort of looked like a big tick but definitely not. Wish I had gotten a picture but I just started picking and squashing them. they were in bunches under about 3 or 4 leaves right near the stem. and they wanted desperately to stay on the underside of the leaves!

    This and a few japanese beetles. I tried something a friend told me about sqashing the first beetles I saw and putting them in a small bucket of water with a few drops of liquid soap. Told me they were scout beetles? and the scent of them squashed in the water would send out a "keep away" signal instead of a "come and get it" signal. The soap was just to keep out mosquitoes. We'll see. any suggestions on what to do about the beetles ad what those other bugs were would be greatly appreciated. I don't want my first veggie garden ruined!
     
  2. punkin patch

    punkin patch Member

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    ok I did a lot of google searching and found out they were squash bugs. I killed everything I saw and squashed one batch of eggs that I saw. I turned over a LOT of leaves and I don't see any more. the leaves that were infested I cut off, stomped repeatedly, and discarded. Hopefully that's enough.

    Now I'm worried all my plants will get eaten before they make any vegetables.
     

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