How to Identify and Get Rid of Squash Bugs in the Garden

How to Get Rid of Squash Bugs

• Early detection is critical! You want to catch squash bugs before they grow into adults, or they become very difficult to get rid of completely.
• Pick bugs off the plant early. Fill a bucket with water and liquid dish soap and flick bugs into soapy water. Once the bugs are dead, it’s fine to dump the water anywhere.
• Pick egg masses off the plants in the morning and later in the day. You can also simply scrape the eggs off the leaves with a butter knife and let them fall onto the ground, where beetles will eat them. Eggs hatch in about 10 days, so be sure to check for them on at least a weekly basis.
• Place a board or shingle in the garden at night (or pieces of newspaper). During the night, both adults and nymphs will congregate underneath the board. Squash between two hard surfaces in the morning and dispose of them.
• Keep checking your plants at least daily. If there are no more than a few vines infected, keep collecting and destroying the bugs and crushing the egg clusters that you find on the undersides of leaves.
• Remove plant debris during the growing season to reduce sites where squash bugs can hide. 

Using pesticides

Insecticides are not effective in managing squash bugs once they are adults, so don’t bother trying.

In the event that you catch the squash wilting very early in the season and you catch this when eggs are hatching, then insecticide application is probably needed to manage it. See your local garden center or cooperative extension service for controls that are locally approved. The best time to apply pesticides is early morning or late at night (during minimum bee activity). Be sure to spray underneath the leaves, where most squash bugs are found.

It is not necessary to treat squash bugs found in the garden during late summer or fall.

How to Prevent Squash Bugs

• Prevention is key: In the fall, burn or compost old squash vines to rid your garden of any possible shelters for breeding and overwintering.
• Avoid thick layers of mulches like straw or hay that provide an environment that these bugs seem to love.
• Practice crop rotation.
• Consider keeping squash plants covered until blossoming begins. Remove the cover for pollination needs. There is typically only one generation of squash bugs per year, and you can avoid them by covering your plants for the first month of spring. You can also delay planting your squash until the early months of summer.
• Companion planting can be useful in repelling squash bugs. Try planting nasturtium and tansy around your plants that are commonly affected by squash bugs.
• Select varieties of squash that are resistant to the squash bug if you have a big problem. ‘Butternut’, ‘Royal Acorn’, and ‘Sweet Cheese’ varieties are all more resistant to squash bugs.
• Clean up cucurbits and other plant matter in the fall to reduce the number of overwintering sites.