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Gourd Tips and Information
Just like any other plant, gourds have a few pests that can hinder their
growth. Different areas of the country will have different pests, but, due to
limited server space, I'm not going to go into every insect pest that may
attack gourd plants. There are however, a few major ones I'll try to discuss
and what can be done about them.
The Cucumber Beetle is one of the insect pests that you're very
likely to encounter. The adult beetle is about 1/4" long and has yellow
stripes lengthwise its wing cases. Yes, it flies. There is also a spotted
version. The adult beetle will eat the leaves, and unless you have a major
infestation, they usually won't do too much damage. However, the larvae of
this insect will bore into the stems and roots of the plants and can stunt the
growth of a plant, if not kill it.
The Squash Bug is another pest that you might encounter. This bug
is about 1/2" long, gray in color and looks rather flat. The nymphs probably
do more damage than the adults. They suck the sap from the leaves and young
gourds.
Another problem you will probably encounter is the Vine Borer. If
your plants mysteriously start to wilt, then look at the base of the plant. If
you find white grubs, then you have vine borers. These pests will bore into
the main stem of the plant and eat a rather large portion of the stem away.
After removing the pest, one thing you can do to repair the damage is to mound
the earth around the base of the plant.
Some Solutions
There are many things that can be done to remedy the situations
described above, I'm only going to give solutions to a few of those here. If
you have other problems, check with your local Agricultural Extension Office.
And remember one thing when using insecticides. Over-use could result in the
destruction of beneficial insects such as Honeybees and Ladybugs, so please,
use some common sense and use any insecticide with care. Read and follow all
instructions carefully.
Sevin dust seems to be the one cure-all here.
Just be careful and use only enough to fix the problem at hand. If you kill
your pollinators, you won't have any gourds. You don't need sevin dust on the
leaves and blooms if you're trying to kill vine borers.
Funguses
If you notice parts of your plants that have a mold on them, cut the
affected parts from your vines and burn them. You want to remove the affected
parts as quickly as possible before more of the plant becomes infected. Rather
than buy more chemicals and fungicides, burning is the most effective way to
deal with this problem on a small scale.
The following article was written by Sammy Crawford,
Gourd artist extroardinaire, teacher, and published author.
Look for her books, and check out her website.
Thank You Sammy.
GOURDS AND S.T.D.’s
by Sammie Crawford
I have an s.t.d. (socially transmitted disease) or
rather my gourds do. And like an s.t.d., no one wants to admit that they have
it. Over the last three years, I have found this to be true of gourdheads as
well. NO ONE will even admit to knowing about them but I now know that they
are widespread. Maybe you have seen the signs but didn’t know what they meant.
Somewhere at some gourd show or perhaps in a gourd shipment, my gourds
became infected with an insect called a Powder Post Beetle. It is
brown, shaped like a ladybug and about the size of a flea. They make a tiny
hole about the size of the head of a straight pin. They bore into gourds and
eat them, leaving tiny little telltale piles of powder in their wake. They are
like termites in that they like to eat dead wood and they found gourds to be
easy pickin’s.
I fought these creatures for three years, losing my will to create and
paint during that time because they were slowly eating my gourds, painted and
unpainted. I tried everything I could think of to kill them. I read every
bottle of pesticide in Lowe’s and only one in all the dozens even mentioned
the beetles. I bought it, used a hypodermic needle to inject it into every
infested gourd, sealed the holes and – it didn’t work.
I researched them on the internet, I called or visited entomologists and
professors, experts of all sorts at the University of Arizona, U.C.L.A. and
the University of Arkansas and people in the timber industry. I talked to
exterminators and anyone I thought could help. They were all familiar with the
bug but couldn’t tell me much about it. The exterminator wanted to rent a
U-Haul trailer, place all the gourds inside and fumigate the trailer. I asked
him what about the bugs that might be in the building. Silence. I asked if he
could guarantee that would take care of them. Silence. Then he suggested that
I place all of them in the freezer. Was this guy fishing or what?
I learned about a solution that is used to pressure treat logs before
they are used to build homes. At $50 a gallon, I bought 10 gallons and dipped
approximately 5,000 gourds in it. Just to be safe, I left the solution in
place until I was ready to paint the gourd and then washed it off. Finally it
looked like I had found the answer – then I started seeing beetles and their
little sawdust piles again. Once again I felt resigned to never conquering
this beast.
Then one day my husband said “Why don’t you try ammonia?
Nothing can survive ammonia fumes.” I just scoffed at this mere mortal who
knew not of what he speaketh. But the more I thought about it the more I
figured - what did I have to lose? I bought a dollar bottle of ammonia, got
out the old hypo once again and began injecting. I sealed the little holes and
on things like bowls, I sealed them in ziplock bags with an ammonia soaked
paper towel. In birdhouses, I squirted it in and sealed the hole with a paper
towel. If I opened a new gourd I inserted an ammonia soaked paper towel before
sealing it up again. I am happy to report that it has been about six months
and I have yet to see any new activity. I don’t want to say this too loudly
but I think I have finally beaten the scourge of the gourd world. So don’t be
afraid to admit that you, too, have an s.t.d. Just get out that ammonia and
fight back.
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