Squash Bug Season
There comes a time in every summer season, shortly after the solstice, when all seems peaceful in the garden. The plants are taking off, absorbing the warm summer sun and growing steadily each day. Bees dot the flowers that bloom and sway in the breeze.
And then, the tide turns. You’re admiring the large leaves on your squash plants when you see them. Squash bugs. The armored, gray, 1-inch long insects are also known as squash vine borers. They lay copper-red eggs the size of small grains of rice on the back of squash plant leaves, they hatch into bluish gray nymphs that spread in large numbers to other squash plants around them and transform yet again into the gray stink-bug-look-a-like adults that repeat the process all over again.
Squash bugs in my garden on 6/27/25
Last night, I found my cucurbit plants (summer squash like zuchinni and winter squash like pumpkins and gourds) plants covered in squash bugs, so here’s what I plan to do about it. First assemble these supplies: Scotch tape, a bucket, Dawn-style dish soap, a pair of garden gloves and diatomaceous earth (optional).
Pick off the Adults
First, ready a bucket of soapy water and don a pair of gloves if you’re squeamish. Then, gently lift the base of each plant where it meets the soil and look for the adults. Hand pick them off the plant before they dive back into the soil or hide behind other stalks on the plant, and then dunk them in soapy water (or squish them if you’re not squeamish).
Remove the egg larvae
Use Scotch tape (your fingers or a spoon can damage the delicate leaves) and peel the reddish eggs off the backs of the leaves. They’re often in the spaces where the stem meets the leaf. Check each leaf on your plants.
Dust with diatomaceous earth
I don’t always use DE but it can help if your squash bug problem feels out of hand. Dust the plant itself (trying to keep it from touching too much of the soil around it) from the leaves to the base of the plant with DE. It is most effective in the nymph stage (blue guys) to dehydrate the bugs themselves. This can effect anything with an exoskeleton, so be careful when applying it to your garden so you don’t harm the good bugs!
REPEAT! Repeat! repeat!
If you do this three-step process every day for 7-10 days, you’ll stave off a squash bug infestation and save your squash crop in the garden. If you are still seeing large numbers of eggs, adults and nymphs, keep this processing going until you see numbers reduce. This can be a challenging time for gardeners, but it’s well-worth the hands-on effort.
Another wonderful way to reduce the likelihood of squash bugs in your garden is to practice our tried-and-true intensive planting method in tall raised beds. Click the button below to learn more about how our gardens grow.