Hello, sorry I don't know your name. I am Ross Murphy of Shawnee, Kansas, a gardener with much useful experience I manage a three-acre Community Garden and 15 to 18 families grow much of their fresh food here. First, the Roly-polies. Don't ever revile them; welcome them. They are extremely beneficial to your garden. They never eat any growing plant, what they do is consume garden wastes, even wood, digest it and return it to your garden as fertilizer. Their power and usefulness can hardly be imagined. Let me give you a good example. Some years ago, when my family were growing up here, we had a small family flock of hens, and a rooster, a real necessity. Neighbors wanted to buy eggs so gradually our flock grew to 250, plus 15 roosters. One day, I truck rolled by carrying ground up tree trunks and branches, probably ten tons of wood chips. I ran out and stopped the driver. He had to drive to Leavenworth to dump this in the landfill. I told him he could dump in my garden, which was like rubies or emeralds as he had a round trip of 70 miles. The next day he had an equal amount, two gigantic mounds of the wood. As our hens ran free-range, I put chicken wire fence around them Soon the first roly Polies arrived and went to work, eating the wood. The population grew to thousands, then probably to millions. They ate every day, all freezing winter too. At the end of two years the mounds of wood chips was reduced to three feet high of nitrogen, phosphorous and Potassium, the three elements of fertilizer. I didn't have to pay them anything. Now, that spring, I took down the chicken fence and let the chickens go at it. They like to scrape and scratch and they did this so they could feast on the roly-polies. This reduced my chicken feed costs greatly and the eggs were wonderful! They scattered that fertilizer over a huge area and I didn't have to pay them anything. That amount of very rich fertilizer would have cost me dearly at Home Depot, and the stuff at HD is 80 per cent filler. Next the squash vein maggot. The eggs are laid by a pretty dark fly, about half an inch. They have dark bodies and orange swept-back wings. They start in as soon as your squash, of whatever variety, first get their leaves. So you have to act quickly to stop them before they lay their tiny eggs. The eggs hatch and the larvae begin to chew their way into the stems, at ground level. They enter the stem when they are the size of fly maggots. At this time you can see their excreta at the bottom of the stem; it looks like fine sawdust. At this moment you have a chance to kill them, by taking a long needle and stabbing it around in the stem, killing some of them. This is only chancy though, so now I will tell you the exact, perfect, never fail way to destroy them. I think I am the only person who knows this and now there will be two. About 20 or so years ago, in the German state of Thuringia, was discovered an amazing thing: I was a bacteria, a microbe, that if it were eaten by a corn ear worm, for example, the bacteria, upon reaching the gut, starts to multiply, dividing and dividing again, you've seen movies of cell division before, I feel sure. They multiply so fast, with so many that the will burst the stomach of the worm and destroy it. What a brilliant discovery! Now you can buy it from any garden shop or hardware store, in powder or liquid form. I have used it for years and it is very effectived. So I bought some of the liquid and painted the stems of the squash plants so the larvae would eat it and die. This was only partly successful, because maybe the grub didn't eat it, or the rain washed it away. And then I had my serendipitous moment, my creative solution. Here it is: When the leaves start on your squash, go to your pharmacy and buy---I think it is size 50--hypodermic needle. Not the kind for injecting insulin, the needle won't push the watery powder through. With the larger needle you can suck up some of the BT, bacillus thuringiensis, in liquid form. Inject a small amount of the bacillus at the bottom of the stem of your plants. You only have to do this once; the bacillus will take up residency inside the stem. Now, when the grub eats his way into the stem, before her ever gets through into the interior, BT wiill overwhelm him and killed him ded, ded, ded. BT is harmless to people, and it will never move as high as the blossoms or the squash the plant produces.No aluminum foil, no panty hose, no band-aids or stretch adhesive needed at all. I have had many careers in my lifetime: Newspaper Editor of a Hollywood weekly newspaper; computer diagnostician and repairman, in Los Angeles; electrical engineer in a great laboratory in Upstate New York, Inventor; one of the top IBM computer salesmen in America, professional, award-winning free--lance writer, business columnist for Washington Post/Newsweek for six years. I also invented a garden weeding tool now in use, not only in the US, but also in five foureign countries. I also invented a little circuit and some microprogramming that will make a gigantic computer system includiing all its outside devices, diagnose itself in less that half a minute. My invention is used in every pc computer system in the world, more that three billion, plus now in every cell phone. I wish I could continue to tell you about how to rid your garden of the Squash Stinkbug, but enough for now. Ross Murphy, Shawnee, Kansas, suprwedr@sbcglobal.net. ,

What a cool idea! Colorful Coban (athletic tape) on your squash! You can wrap the rainbow! Lol! Skittles humor... just a little...

Following up from my last comment... I just found some of this athletic tape at Walmart and got some to put on my squash plants, and I LOVE this stuff! I got out there to apply it just in time to catch an active borer in the act! I cut into the stem and extracted the little bugger with tweezers after it had worked its way through the inside of a little over an inch of the main stem. As it so happens, this tape also makes an EXCELLENT wound dressing after doing "surgery" to remove a borer from the stem. It'll keep other opportunistic critters out of the wound and give the plant a fighting chance to heal and survive. THANK YOU for sharing this!

Mother started her own tomato seeds. When she planted them in the garden, she took strips of newspaper about 2 1/2 inches wide and wrapped around the stem to avoid cutworms. The plants were then planted in the garden with part of the paper below the soil surface. Her family grew produce for the local farmer's market, so I believe this is a procedure that worked for them. The newspaper is completely deteriorated by the end of the growing season.

I did A LOT of vine surgery and saved most of my plants.

I have been trying to figure out now for weeks what straw Bells are. I was cognizant of the fact that you are planting in hay bales. But today I just figured out that there was nothing you were going to plant that was called a straw Bell. I laughed so hard I cried.

This has been the main reason I cannot grow zuchinni! what the heck!! I can grow lots of things but not this! THANK YOU RACHEL! Always love your tips, whether its for gardening, or life itself! Mucho Appreciation!

Brillant❣️❣️ last year I had good luck by wrapping with foil & injecting BT into the stem of my Zucchinni

The squash vine bore can even travel in the leaves and down into the steam bt is a great way to deal with them. You can even inject bt into where you see where the squash vine bore has entered.

How timely. A friend and I recently found borers on her squash and we’ve been researching solutions. I was happy to pass on your idea. Incidentally, we call it “vet wrap”, as it’s used for animals as well. Always enjoy seeing what’s going on in your garden! Be Blissed! daisy

Glad to see the injured turkey is doing well. Just needed a little TLC. Have a great weekend.

This is a genius idea, Rachel! Fortunately, we don’t get squash vine borer here in Idaho. We do have to battle tons of squash bugs, though. I use Neem oil Mixed with Azamax to kill them. I’ve tried everything else and it’s the only thing that has killed them reliably. The Dawn dish soap works, but you have to be out there spraying them all the time.

If you catch it early enough you can also inject BT into the stem and kill the squashvine bore. I have had success sprinkling DE around the stem, and have also heard that just covering the stem with soil works too.

What you can do to naturally defend against this is to raise your brix count (% sugar) by using a foliar spray consisting of 5 parts humic acid and 2 parts kelp meal. Once your sugar content reaches 12% pests don’t recognize the plant as food. It will also prevent mold and mildew and thicken the cell walls by opening calcium ion channels.

This was my second time watching this video. Not unusual for me. I get such calming feeling watching your videos. I know that y'all have difficult times, but I feel such peace and tranquility when you two share a bit of your life with me. Pam

There are so many bugs here in Kentucky that I never had to deal with before! Last year I gave up on zucchini and squash because of the borers. Can't wait to try the tape!

Such a good idea Rachel, I would have never thought. The Turkeys are so cute Todd and I couldn't believe how they went right back in their pen.

Great idea with the stretch wrap!! Wow I love it! And the green is awesome, won’t make the garden look so goofy 😂

I was told by many farmers in my region ( Connecticut) that dawn soap( or any dish soap that is a degreaser ) mixed with water ( heavy with the soap) using a sprayer will also kill not only the shariah nettles and eggs but will also kill the borers

Your garden and grounds are gorgeous!

I’ve never done straw bale gardening. I want to try it one day. I’ve grown zucchini and squash before. I’ve never had that battle before. We just moved to Kentucky so it’s going to be a new experience for sure

In human medical this is called Coban. At the feed store it's called vet wrap. Lots more colors at the feed store

genius!!!i will for sure be doing this to my squash plants this year! they destroyed mine last summer

I've tried wrapping the base stem but they always end up laying eggs on the other stems that the leaves are on. That's when I learned they don't discriminate and will lay eggs on the leaves if they're desperate enough. I keep mine completely covered with mesh and I hand pollinate.

As a kid living in Northern IL. we didn't have squash bores , but here in Southern IN. they decimated my squash .

Going to grow squash for the first time. This is awesome! Thank you for sharing

Thank you very much for sharing your vine borer tip. Had them last year. No squash grew...no female flowers at all. I think it was the bagged soil. Lots of aged manure in raised beds this year. So glad for the update on your turkey. So happy it's doing good. Have a great weekend.

Yup I've got the squash borers right when u described it I was like oh yup that's what's going on and just yanked a big plant out yesterday and didn't even know what the deal was til just now. Thanks 👍 I'm going to start some new ones and try the athletic tape 🤯👍I'm mind blown so glad I watched your video

Bacillus thuringiensis is a great control. You need to spray it every three days under all leaves and the stems. The bugs need to ingest the Bt to be effective. Hence every three days you need to spray it as it degrades very quickly in sunlight.

I've watched a lot of videos on this subject your idea seems truely the most beneficial I discovered a tree glue that was applied that looked interesting you paint it on with a foam brush seemed like a possible remedy for the vine borers as well as the tape

Your lawn is such a beautiful green!

Love the sports tape idea, thank you! Your spinach looks amazing! Enjoy your weekend getaway at the cabin.

YOU,.... are my squash hero!!! Athletic tape!!!! Yea, go Rachael. Thank you so much for taking the time to share.

Such a great idea...I did the foil last year it helped by not 100%...but I at least had a harvest more than once

Oh NOooo! That is what that ewy, goey orangey looking stuff is that is on my cantaloupe plant. This is also my first year of really going hard towards successfully planting melon, squash and cucumber plants. I don't know how many videos I watched and articles I have read about the squash vine borer, other bugs that attack these plants and diseases they tend to get. YOU ARE THE FIRST TO MENTION THE ORANGEY, GOEY STUFF. Thank God I saw this video today! I have my BT and bought the syringey things to inject and can do that today. I don't know if that will work. Next year, I can use the old panty hose I never got around to throwing away. For the squash bugs (not the borers) I found tape works better than all other methods I found and with the tape, I can leave the otherwise healthy leaf on the vine. This is the first year I've had any real success, or it looks like I will soon. I have a ton of vining plants growing hoping to get at least a small harvest, but I purchased and planted as much as I could in order to learn this year and apply more of what I learn to next year's plantings. I hate touching bugs, but I have gotten to the point where I'd rather smoosh whatever I can with my hands than purchase products and/or not have anything to harvest. Wish my luck on using the BT to kill the borers that, thanks to you, I now know, a Squash Vine Borer & it's offspring has attacked.

Excellent information- I have been just covering the vines with banana peels and extra soil.

Thanks for sharing your successful prevention methods with us.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge...will certainly give this a try!

Athletic tape! Genius Rachel! MOM POWER 😆. ❤️ Kristy in Missouri 😃🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Garden looking great. As do your birds and bees. What a pleasure to be harvesting already. Wishing you a wonderful weekend away.

Coban for gardening. Who would have thought. Lol. Being a nurse for 30 years I never would have guessed. Love it! 🩹

Love the long view of the garden through the fence!

Glad to see the injured turkey doing well. I'm not good at combining flocks either. I can't let them peck each other until they establish hierarchy. Have a good time at the cabin!

Over at Lisa's World she says grow cucumbers over your squash to help with bugs. I will be trying this this year, and using bales like you have here. I am so excited to try all your tips here, cucumbers, and bales!

Many years ago , I read that butternut squash repels squash vine borers . I plant a hill of them in the middle of my squash / melon patch at the same time , and weave the butternut tentacles in between the other squash / melon plants as they grow . Apparently , the bugs only smell the butternut squash plants , and go to a better neighborhood . This has worked like a charm for me , AND …. It’s so easy‼️ 🌸💕

Last year we had zero issues with borers but this year we are getting a brutal screwing on all our squash and we lost a apple tree from borers. I used to be an entomologist, so I know they aren't the same. However this technique might be great for trees also. It's so irritating to lose your squash but it's even worse to lose a tree that you have been working on for years. I am so glad I clicked on your video.

Rachel I have given up trying t grow zucchini, they have far too many problems over here for me. Great work protecting them though- Loved seeing Todd back in the videos & can't wait to see the update on the bees. Cheers Denise

Hi Rachael. All this is well with me. This my favorite videos thank you So much. Stay safe. Thank you taking so much care. Maria thank you for sharing. 💁🖐️💁🖐️👍👍👍👍🙏🙏🙏🙏💖💖🌹🌹🌹🌹🌧🌧🌧🌧🌧🌧🌧🌧🌹🌹🌹❤

Or. Plant squash with solid stems instead of hollow stems. There's an entire branch of the cucubert family.

BRILLIANT!!!!! YOU'RE THE BORER BOMB!!!! WTG, Rachel!!!!

Omg what a smart idea! I can't wait to see how it works out!

Squash vine borers lay eggs on the underneath of the leaves. It looks like a fat red bee or fat red fly. The eggs hatch and crawl down the stem of the leaves then bore into main vine. If you catch them earlier enough you can cut into the vine and kill the worm or like me. Bright flashlight and big big sewing needle and you can poke to death lol. (Yes im sure my neighbors think I'm a nut! Lol I'm just glad to provide entertainment) I bought Bt for my broccoli and English walnuts so will be injecting my zucchini and yellow crookneck squashes with it this year. I wish we could share photos as I've documented over the years so I could teach my grandkiddos the cycles of garden pests.

Now watch! I’ll have them this year!

Ah Todd glad to see you got the magic spray all will be well! I am watching and you mentioned the purple antiseptic spray, always a staple so you can treat wounds and prevent infection. So glad I could help!

Nice video. Relaxes me to watch the chickens, turkeys, laugh with you about strutting turkeys, and to experience the evening environment in your area of the country. Still having mourning frost in Missouri, where I now live, having moved here from Northern, VA. I've got my plant starts started inside. I'll be planting cantaloupe later, no squash this year, except for pumpkins and watermelon, and will try this. Appreciate starting the day with you this morning.

omg ! your garden is gorgeous. beautiful.

I’m so glad we dont have that borer here. We get nice thick healthy stalks on our zucchini plants. Nom nom

Genius with the athletic tape

Love your level of information with your channel! PS....bringing a chicken into your house makes you an official “chicken lady”.❤️

Hi, been a gardener for over 30+ years in Bridgeport, CT. I am trying this product. I have done the route you have taken. This is new, I tried it today. I asked my daughter what her 3 kids use for sore areas and she new what it was. I have about 20-30 plants to do. I can't wait to see how it works. Love this show!

You did great with your color choice for the squash plants. They can hardly be seen. 🤗

I also have had a hard time with vine borers. They actually bore into the leave stems near the upper part of the trunk of the plant, they even get into my Butter Nut vines on the trellis. I have been using a needle and syringe injecting BT into the main stem, it kills the larva without cutting them out with a sharp knife/razor. These borers are really horrible, this year I am using a pyrethrin spray as a barrier around the garden maybe to deter them. Only other advice I have heard was to plant very late in the year to avoid laying season. Good luck

That’s such a good idea! I am growing my 2nd round of squash for this spring because the vine borers have already taken out the first bunch of plants. When they get big enough I’ll try this.

Front garden looks so pretty u did good with the fesne so pleasing

So interesting. We’re in central west Michigan and have never had an issue with squash bugs!

That’s a very pretty sunset!

Loved your video. I dealt with the borer last year. And I saved two of my vines by using a needle. And I poked through the vine to kill the borer. I also read up on the aluminum foil idea. And applied that as well. But I love your idea of the sports tape! I’m going to get some! 😊 Have a great memorial day weekend

I appreciate this video so much. We are growing zucchini/squash for the first time this year. I will most definitely wrap them.

Oh that is just brilliant!! Can't wait to try it.😃

Wow!!! I am so excited to try this!! Out of the last 5 years I've had ONE fruit. This year I only planted one plant because I am so discouraged.. I have purple coban but I don't care the color as long as it works! Thank you so much for this video!

Melissa, we are trying Diatomaceous earth around the base of the squash vine early summer. We don’t put it on the plant per se because it’s not good for our honeybees. While it’s not a super killer of honeybees it can coat them. Another reason we but it on the dirt around the vine as the bees don’t crawl around on dirt. Give it a try, you can buy food grade DE and it is considered “organic”. Have you tried Kaolin clay ? This is another safe pesticide but I am not sure it works on the squash borers. You can bury it under the name “ surround WP”, super safe … it’s considered. A “ cosmetic treatment” for facials. Love your channel ! Brandy and Alexander

Great advice for the squash plants.I'll be sending out the hubby for athletic tape pronto..Your dedication is beyond any words I have to express . I think I am going to call you my 5 ***** lady, because you really are..Thank you very much for all you do.

Using athletic tape on the stems to prevent squash bores is a great idea and more economical than panty hose.

🤣🤣🤣 the ad for the video was “a quiet place movie part 2” I jumped so bad I dropped the phone. Thank goodness for phone cases and screen protectors. I don’t grow squash because of the bugs. Love squash just hate the bugs. Might try it next year and see. Thanks for the video.

Enjoy your videos, thanks from northern Indiana.

I just plant a radish along side of squash and let it grow to flower. Ever since I used radishes I have never had a vine borer problem. Before I lost them every year

🤣So glad I refound your video. I couldn't remember who said it or what to use. Athletic Tape to the rescue! Trying this!

Great idea! I also love your fencing around your squash

Going to be using the MIGardeners eo spray recipe for borers. Would be wrapping my life away due to all the ones I grow. 🍀

Interesting about inter-planting corn with spinach. Beautiful evening sky. 💕from Ky.

I knew there had to be a better solution than aluminum foil. That stuff really didn't work at all for me. I was about to try some floral tape on my late season squash plants that I got at Hobby Lobby, but this athletic tape stuff you found looks more promising. Enjoyed the rest of your video, too... you just got a new subscriber. Thanks!

Great idea for the squash bugs Rachel! I'm not growing squash this year, but will certainly remember this as an option if I see indications of squash bugs... 🐛🐛🐛🐛🐛🐛

Such a pretty homestead.

We just started having chickens last September. They do look so funny when they run. I call them Jurassic Chickens! 😁

Lol, I use sports tape as a quick and easy headband for workouts. Good to know there's a use for it in the garden. 😊

Here in Coastal North Carolina there are 3 vine borer egg laying times. There is a way to avoid them and that is start seeds indoors in Febuary and put out in the garden end of March. They're good size plants that I've nutured by a grow light and hardened off outside on warm days .Then I plant from seed a second crop of squash at the mid July for a fall crop. I did this last year with success and I'm doing it again this year. ALSO GROWING CAYENNE PEPPERS. DILL ,MINT, PETUNIAS,NASTURIUMSETC ALL OVER YOUR GARDEN DOES HELP KEEP BUGS AWAY. I wrapped stems with tin foil but they still killed the plant. I'm considering using material that allows sun in to cover them from the vine borer and do hand pollinating.The sun is very bright and hot here so I don't think losing 10% would do any harm. Growing in " summer" is impossble. Bugs bugs and more bugs here in NC !

Athletic tape!!! GENIUS! 🤯

I have visions of you guys taking your tame turkeys out for an evening stroll on leashes! Those are some mellow 'raptors'! 😉 Good luck with the tape experiment, hope it does well!

Here in central Georgia the vine borers don’t only go for the base of the plant, they will eat into the stem anywhere on the plant, took me a few years to find what works for me but after injecting BT, using traps, etc… I spray all the stems with Kaolin clay once a week and it works wonders! They use to only get my squash and pumpkins and never bothered my watermelons, cucumbers, and other cucurbits! Not only is kaolin clay great for vine borers, but also cucumber beetles, lady beetles, Japanese beetles, squash bugs, and many other chewing pests, they really don’t want to take a bite of that clay or for it to gunk up their antennas….

I have found removing the bottom from a solo cup and pushing it into the ground an inch or so deep, then planting the squase seed in the middle, solves the borer worm problem.

OMG what a great use for vet wrap. I am going to do it ASAP

Fantastic idea!!!! Thanks for sharing

You're a genius lady

I will be using this technique ... thanks for sharing ... remember to stay safe and stay blessed

I’m in Michigan and I’m happy to say, I haven’t had an issue but I’ll watch, because ya never know!!! I’ve had a garden for almost 40 years. 😐 I do wrap my tomatoes with foil though, cut worms are awful 🤬🤬

Wonderful idea! I will try. I enjoy your channel

Great idea Rachel! I’m copying.

I did not even start any this year due to the disaster I had last year. May try to pick up a few plants and give this a try. Please come back and revisit when you wrap again! TY

I'd add some "Tangle foot" to the top of that Ace bandage !

Life looks good guys