As promised, tonight I bring to you the heart-breaking saga of the second Squash Vine Borer (hereafter known as SVB) attack on my beloved b-nut squash.
After neglecting to meticulously inspect my butternut squash vines due to reading somewhere that the dreaded SVB ceases attacking after August, I was horrified to find one Sunday morning three weeks ago that the SVB had revisited, leaving its progeny to decimate my b-nut squash. I had noticed some time before that the leaves on the vine were sort of withering up and turning yellow, but I thought maybe it was because they were older leaves. My squash fruit seemed OK, though small, and I just stood stubbornly steadfast in believing what I read, that I had nothing to fear from SVB after August.
But of course, this is Central Texas, where we continue to experience summer, or at least late spring-like temps well into November. Duh! I fergot! Which means it’s still perfect weather for the SVB to go a-laying its little eggs.
In any case, as I watered the squash that fateful Sunday morn, I decided to remove some of the dead leaves. As I removed them, I noticed the tell-tale sign of SVB infestation: SVB “sawdust.” You can see a picture of it below, after this post. Now, up til this point, I’d never seen it before, but I had read about it, and I knew that this had to be it. Then I found some dark eggs, and more “sawdust.” Then I removed some vine where I found the sawdust, and striped back the stem: yup, there it was, an ugly, slimy, segmented, inch-long larvae munching its way through the vine.
Well, I was essentially heartsick, and mad at myself for being so lax in checking for signs of SVB. I decided I’d try to save my b-nut squash as much as I could, and so cut back vine, but I kept finding more signs of infestation. I wound up basically ripping out one of the squash plants. Amazingly enough, the other plant didn’t seem to be infested at all, so I was able to keep that. I was so grateful that I had one un-infested plant!
Unfortunately, the plant I had to rip out had all the fruit on it. However, while the fruit was relatively small, it didn’t look like it had been infested. I understand that SVB larvae like to eat the vine, but leave the squash fruit alone. I decided not to throw them out and see if I could still use them. You can see a pix of them to the right.
I was a little worried that maybe the squash was infested when I saw some larvae creeping on the counter I sat them on. I decided if any more crept out that I would cut the squash open to see if it was infested and throw them out if so, and cook them if not. But no more crept out, so I decided to keep them intact until I was ready to cook them.
Last weekend I used one of the squash to make a lentil-ginger-butternut squash soup, and as I tentatively cut up the squash, expecting it to perhaps have some larvae deep within, there was none. I also wondered if the flesh would be any good. I had figured that the reason the fruit was small was that the SVB larvae had stunted the growth of the fruit as they ate up the vine, which is the lifeline for the fruit. So I wondered if it would really be ripe, but when I cut the squash open, the flesh was nice and orange like any b-nut squash I’ve bought from the grocery store. And it worked just great in the soup, so I was very pleased. The soup itself cooked into such a mash that it was hard to pick out exact flavors of some of the ingredients, but there was no bitter flavor that might accompany an unripe squash.
As for my intact b-nut squash plant, I have fertilized it and I now check over it as often as I can. So far no SVB infestation as far as I can tell, and it’s now starting to produce some more fruit, so I should continue to have squash for this season. I think, however, that the fruit is just going to be small, as I’ve got one that is maturing that isn’t much bigger than the others I harvested earlier.
I figure that growing veggies in containers may lead to smaller veggies. This seems to be the case with the Malabar spinach that I’m growing in a container; its leaves are a lot smaller than the ones of the Malabar spinach in the square foot garden. Maybe it’s because the root system has limited room in which to spread, I don’t know. It’s not a bad thing; the produce still tastes good, it’s just that it’s smaller.
In any case, I’m just glad I was able to save the other b-nut squash plant, and glad I have more fruit growing on it. From now on I will make sure I keep a sharp look-out for any SVB infestation!
Because I couldn’t ever find pictures of either the SVB sawdust or pix of the larvae on the Internet, I decided to take some pix for others who might be curious what to look for. Unfortunately these pix are not in focus very well, but hopefully you can see the sawdust and the larvae. The first picture is of a squash stem with sawdust hanging off of it. The picture caty-corner to it is one of a stem pulled back and exposing the larvae. It’s all white, slimy and segmented and shows up in the middle of the stem.
Hi Zippy,
They got you too, huh? The squash vine borers. Nasty little critters. This is my first year gardening, and I got a few squash before the decimation set in on the vines. I guess I need to wear my glasses when I inspect the plants because I never did see the eggs, only the sawdust. I was able to cut out a few borers, but the squashes that remained just didn’t get enough plant juice to bulk up like the earlier ones. Then powdery mildew set in when the humidity went up. I’ll be glad when I pass the learning curve.
I’m with you on the idea of self-sufficiency, but my non vegan ways prevent it here in the city. I’m having dreams of a small place outside the city with a much larger organic garden, cold frames, a green house, a few chickens, and maybe a goat or two depending on how much trouble goats can think up to get into. Then again, this backyard garden is enough work for the moment.
Keep reporting. The pictures are great too!
Hullo, Lazygardener (love that name — I can relate!;) ),
Yah, the SVB are indeed some nasty little varmits, aren’t they? I have managed to not incur their wrath further this fall, though perhaps they did peeter out down here with our cool nights that we’ve been having in the Austin area. Next year I really think I’m going to use row cover to try and prevent infestation and see how that goes.
I’ve only managed to get two more squash. I’ve got one tiny ripe fruit and one larger, probably the largest of all the fruit, ripening on the vine. That’s probably it for the season. Though they have been small, they are pretty tasty. And I got some more seeds out of my second squash (the first one I used didn’t really have any mature seeds). I’m going to try planting those next year and see what I get — wonder if I’ll get tiny b-nuts again? I’ll plant those with my leftover seed from this past year, and I think next year I will do b-nut via square foot gardening instead of container. The container was just experimental anyway, and also to show my apartment-dwelling friends that yes, ya can grow even b-nut squash in a container, even if the fruit is small!
And I’m with ya on the learning curve. I’ve grown various plants, herbs and tomatoes in containers, but this is my first year for larger veggie growing. I’ll be expanding both my growing space and repetoire in the coming year, so I’ll be interested to see what happens. It’s not always easy, but I am totally addicted to growing my own food, and it has been so wonderful this summer and fall to have tons of greens (my fave veg) growing, and instead of paying Whole Paycheck $2.50 per bunch of greens, I have a huge supply fer free, anytime I want it!
Also, I relate to the dream of a place outside the city. My own ultimate dream is buy some land, maybe out around Marfa, build a tiny house powered on solar and wind and grow lots of my own food, have chickens for eggs and maybe goats for milk. We shall see. Fer now I have a mother to take care of and other committments, but this is my ultimate goal. I’m just pleased to have a house with some land on it for square foot gardening (having been an apartment dweller most of my life), and think I have enough land to grow a lot of my own food.
If you want to have chickens, ya might want to look into yer city and/or neighborhood association zoning rules. Not sure where ya are in TX, but there are several neighborhoods in Austin where chickies are OK, and maybe even a goat or two. I need to re-read my neighborhood association rulz, but I think in my hood it is a no-no. Hope not. I’d really like to have my own eggs too!
Anywho, best of luck to ya in yer gardening efforts and farming dreams, and thanx for stopping by and giving me a shout!
–Zippy
[…] squash I planted, and if you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, you know all about my ongoing struggle with butternut squash and the dreaded, evil SVB (Squash Vine Borer) since I started my garden in […]