Post #4243079

this is what squash borer damage looks like. If you see an orange crusty substance at the base of your plants and/or joints, you can often wipe it away and see the bore hole where the larva bored its way in. If you work fast, you can cut open the stem, and excise it. If you can't find it, or don't work fast, you're gonna lose the entire plant. Of course, its not easy to see the bore holes in early july when these things are fucking jungle-sized, so how else do you tell things aren't as they seem? Well, my pumpkin plants were extremely sensitive to temperature changes. Most plants in the squash family are hardy, and it takes A LOT of negligence to kill them willfully. They shouldn't be wilting a day after you watered them, even if the heat is somewhat intense. If you notice wilting if your water is "late" or even skipped by a day, there's something else going on. keep an eye out for squash vine borer moths. They're about the size of a wasp, with black wings and a bright traffic cone orange thorax. You can usually see them buzzing around late june and early july. They're kill on sight.