Thanks for the replies, but what kind of spray kills the borer adults
without killing all the pollinators? I'd like to know because the work I put
into raising squash is a pain.

The floating row covers work, but the size of the patch make it
prohibitively expensive for a guy who operates a fork lift for a living. It
also means a lot of hand pollination.

John
wrote in message
...
on a large patch need to spray with something kills borers. actually,
probably the
best non toxic method is floating row covers. if the moths cant lay eggs,
they cant
hatch into larvae etc. etc. Ingrid

"B & J" wrote:

"TOM KAN PA" wrote in message
...
Every pumpkin I got this year turned white and mushy in various stages
of
growth. From one as big as a basket ball down to one the size of a soft
ball. I
know they need water, but I guess they got too much this year.

Don't think you're the Lone Ranger, Tom. My nephew in Illinois who
ordinarily raises a big patch of pumpkins that he allows the local school
kids to raid just before Halloween is giving up raising for them the next
couple of years. The borers started in his patch last year by wiping out
some but killed all of them this year. When he called me earlier asking
with
to do about borers, I told him that I stopped the borer by wrapping the
base
stems with foil along with spreading diatomaceous earth around the base.
Of
course, that's almost impossible to do in a large patch unless it's your
only job.

Does anyone know another method of deterring or destroying borers?

John




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