Squash Vine Borer

Zucchini Tribute

~ McArtor ~ 1 Comment

Our zucchini plants produced over 22 pounds of zucchini!   We could not pick them fast enough so some zucchini grew into a size worthy of the county fair.  My kitchen counters were covered with green logs a few weeks ago.  I chopped and my son shredded (using the food processor) until we filled over 15  cups with zucchini meat.  Here is our zucchini resume…

  • Traditional zucchini bread
  • Oatmeal cookies containing shredded zucchini (squeezed dry).
  • Appetizers of breaded then broiled zucchini slices (can be used in Lasagna in place of noodles).
  • Pasta with sauted zucchini, tomatoes, garlic and onion.
  • Pizza with a crust made from shredded zucchini, eggs, flour, olive oil and cheese.  My son’s culinary review, “It does not look like pizza, but it tastes like pizza.  It is yummy!”

    pizza with a zucchini crust

Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to our zucchini plants this week.   I found a squash vine borer larva inside the stem of one of our plants.  Moist sawdust-like debris around each stem and wilted leaves were signs of this devastating pest.  I cut open one stem and found the larva.  Sometimes the plant can be saved by digging out the larva and covering the stem with dirt.  Our plants had too much damage to be saved.  But our zucchini legacy will continue despite the vine borers……there is more shredded zucchini frozen in a bag inside our freezer!

Squash Vine Borer

~ McArtor ~ 1 Comment

All curcurbits: gourds, pumpkins, summer squash, winter squash and occasionally cucumbers and melons are hosts to the squash vine borer.

I used row covers before the squash plants flowered to prevent pests, but the following actions described in the book, Good Bug, Bad Bug by Jessica Walliser may have prevented  my recent vine borer attack:

    •  Mound soil over the stem up to the lower-most flower to eliminate egg laying surface area and encourage root development.
    •  Wrap a strip of aluminum foil around the plant base early in the season, to prevent adults from laying eggs on the stem.  Nestle the foil just below the  soil surface, reaching up to the lowermost leaf.
squash vine borer in one of our squash stems

We could try and save the plants by cutting the stem and digging out the vine borer larva, then covering the cut stem with dirt.  But,  I learned my lesson, next summer I will remember, “mound and wrap.”