They’re Back!

This is the adult Vine Borer Moth. She lays her eggs at the base of your summer and winter squash plants, and when the eggs hatch the disgusting maggot-like worms tunnel into the hollow stems, eventually killing the plant.

This is a bit odd. All of our okra seedlings are covered – very thickly – in these little clear gelly spheres. They seem like eggs, but the strange thing is that none of the other seedlings (including tomatoes, peppers, sunflowers, papaya, and eggplant) show any signs of the “eggs”.

Also, we haven’t seen any insects. And these have been inside since they were planted – we’re just moving them outside to harden them off for the first time today.

Two days after our squash surgery to remove the vine borers, this little zucchini decided to make an entrance. I’m wondering if the surgery worked, and if the zucchini will make new roots and continue to produce throughout the summer. I’m still not optimistic, but a bit more hopeful!

Above: the first ripe roma tomato of the season. Unfortunately, it was afflicted with Blossom End Rot and so it ripened too quickly and wasn’t very good-tasting. This hot weather with no rain is likely what has caused the BER – we need to water more frequently to keep the soil evenly moist.

In other bad news, we had to pull up all of the buttercup squash plants today. They had worms boring up the stems from the roots – all of them. Very, very sad and upsetting. I hope the cucumbers don’t get attacked, and I am concerned about the rest of the vine plants. We definitely need to have our soil tested next year – something just isn’t right. It takes a few years, though, for land that’s never been gardened on to become really fertile.

Pretty little thing, isn’t she?

Sure, think that now. But here’s what she did to our cabbage before she got wings:

Originally, I was only going to post the cabbage picture and title it something like, “What has gone wrong!?” But after reading about cabbage-eating insects, seeing pictures of the cabbage white butterfly, and realizing that I had taken a picture of a very similar butterfly on our pumpkins this morning, I decided to compare pictures and, sure enough, this is a cabbage white butterfly. (Here are some pictures from other people: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, and the larve who ate our cabbages: Link 4.

Chris pulled off tons of green worms from the cabbages every day. They were also infested with aphids. We did get some neem oil to spray on them, but it looks like the cabbages may be doomed anyway.

Tip for next year: Plan for a fall harvest of cabbages. This may not prevent the aphids, but most of the caterpillars will have turned to butterflies by mid-summer. Also, putting up a barrier around the base of the cabbage (like a tin can) may help keep new caterpillars from finding the delicious cabbage. Also, I’ve read that red cabbages don’t have as strong as a smell as green cabbages – this may incline the moths to lay their eggs elsewhere. Interplanting dill and other strong-smelling herbs may also help.