This morning I went out to my garden just to take a look around. I found squash bug eggs, and while I was trying to remove them by spraying water, I discovered squash bugs. Bleah!

I finally figured out a successful way to get rid of the squash bugs. I take a plastic container with a lid (sour cream, yogurt, whatever is handy), and I scoop the bugs off the leaf with the lid into the container, and cover it. Then I remove them from the garden area and squoosh them.

I don’t like squooshing bugs. But I don’t like to think of my squash plants reduced to a withered crumpled pile of leaves, either, with soft, inedible fruit. So I have a zero tolerance.

I only found two clusters of amber eggs, with about a half-dozen in each clump. They were on separate leaves. It took a long time to dislodge them by spraying water, so I used a toothpick. That worked quickly. I’m not sure where they landed, but I don’t think they can survive off the underside of the leaf where they were deposited.

This yellowjacket  hangs around my raised bed garden, the only place where I have seen the squash bugs. I was hoping it would control some of the nibblers. I guess there would be even more holes in the leaves if it weren’t around.

I have high hopes that this little summer squash (crookneck) will grow to maturity.