More Pests!!

The warmer week we've had is really making the bugs come out of the woodwork. I've never been quite so attentive to the critters coming in and out of the garden, but this is definitely the year I'm more conscientious of everything surrounding the plants and not just the plants themselves.

My most recent discoveries:

This is a Squash Vine Borer (Melittia cucurbitae). I saw this guy flying around and thought it was a wasp of some kind until I took the picture and realized it was fuzzy and figured it was some kind of moth (though flying around during the day I thought was weird). I couldn't figure out what it was just Googling on my own so I asked mom, who knows EVERYTHING and she told me what it was, and then Googling confirmed that. It also helped me identify what the eggs look like.

Doesn't look like much, but it is a small flatish red brown spec, usually standing pretty alone. Thankfully my plants are pretty clean and healthy so they were easy to spot, sticking out like a sore thumb. There were a few stalks there were 4 or 5 in a row like the critter had just walked along pooping out eggs as it crawled along the stem, but it was mostly one here and one there, no clusters. They pop off pretty easy and smash easy too so if you see some on your plants, destroy immediately. If the worms hatch, they immediately dig into your plant and kill it from the inside by eating it. Very difficult to save the plant once the damage is done. I don't plan to let that happen now that I know what to look for.

In the process of photographing the eggs I also saw this nuisance:

Which Google easily told me is a Spotted Cucumber Beetle (Diabrotica undecimpunctata howardi), another pest. I don't know much about them yet other than they can easily be mistaken for a yellow lady beetle, which are good guys. This is NOT a good guy, notice the black head and longer thorax section between the head and main body, the lady beetles don't have that. They hatch little worms that consume foliage. The larvae are commonly known as corn rootworms and destroy crops from the roots. I've only seen two of these guys so far. I'll have to keep an eye out for them and their worms. This year was looking so promising, maybe I'm just being paranoid or just more aware, but the pests are out to get my garden this year!

Prevention is the best way to control most pests so keep your eyes peeled in the spring to avoid devastation later!