Suburban Valkyrie

The scourge of the gardener is pests. And diseases. And critters that eat things you are trying to grow.  And too much rain. And not enough rain. Okay, so gardeners have several scourges.

If you are growing any of the cucurbit family of veggies, though, pests are high up on that list. So it was that I got up close and personal with the squash bug this summer. Or, to be more accurate, the squash bug's eggs.

While working in the garden one morning, my daughter and I noticed a grouping of light brownish spots on the underside of a zucchini plant leaf. A quick check of the Google revealed them to be the eggs of the squash bug.



The squash bug likes to lay its eggs in clusters on the underside of a squash leaf.



The eggs are often clustered near one of the leaf's main veins.



Squash bugs can decimate a garden, and quickly. I knew they had to go.

I'm not a huge fan of chemical insecticides and have tried (and so far have succeeded) to avoid using them in my garden. So rather than try to poison the bugs, I wanted to find a better way to put an end to their next generation.

The answer was as near as my garage: duct tape.

Yes, you can use duct tape to remove squash bug eggs. It is easy and effective, does no damage to the environment or your food supply, and is an immediate solution.

Step 1: Discover eggs. Curse the gardening gods. Then gird your loins for battle.

Step 2: Locate duct tape. Probably in the garage. This step may actually take you the longest amount of time...

Step 3: Cut off a four- to five-inch length of duct tape.

Step 4: Hold the tape so that it is draped over a finger or two (index finger tends to give best control).

Step 5: Gently press duct-tape-covered finger against clutch of eggs and then pull back. Check to see that the eggs all stuck to the tape. If you missed a couple, just touch them again.



Step 6: Marvel at yet another use for duct tape. In the garden. Who knew?

Step 7: Fold the piece of tape securely in half and, for extra measure, squish the two sides together to smush the eggs flat in between. Throw the egg-ridden folded tape in the trash, and take out the trash. Ick.


Even if the tape removes a portion of the leaf along with the eggs (as it did here), that tiny damage still is better than allowing the squash bug eggs to hatch into a crowd of voracious insects ready to destroy your hard gardening work.

After we discovered the first clutch of eggs, checking the undersides of leaves of our yellow squash and zucchini plants became a daily part of our garden work. Every few days, we would find another cluster of eggs. We used the duct tape solution to our squash bug egg problem each time, and it worked like a charm.

I only ever found two actual adult squash bugs, and they were easy enough to grab and kill by smushing. Sorry, squash bugs. You have got to go.

What pests have you discovered in your garden this year? How have you handled them?