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Honesdale, Pennsylvania

I saw in a current Gardens Alive magazine a product called Nema Ject that allows you to inject beneficial nematodes directly into the site of a squash vine borer to kill the grub. It comes in a syring loaded with 1 million nematodes. Now I know that prevention is the best medicine but it looks like a cool tool to have in your arsenal. I can see it now, surveying the patch with a holster on with 1 Million Nematodes by my side. Clint Eastwood would be proud. Has anyone ever tried it?? I was thinking if "Rocky" was to harass me at the weighoffs again I could plug him with a couple of hundred thousand of the buggers to stun him for awhile.

3/3/2009 8:03:10 AM

Oz

I tried nematodes.Mixed the "culture",and used a syringe from a farm supply.
I succeeded in poking myself in the forearm.

The ones that I did get into the vines,had little effect.
The concentration may have been too low.
Or I may have been too late in treating the plants.

I would think a spray around the base of the leaves,and under the leaves,would work better.What you would use as a "stick to it",I do not know.

3/3/2009 9:36:17 AM

Colorado Springs, CO

The SVB was hatched from an egg....somewhere. Could it be in the sheltered and insulating soil environment around or near the pumpkin patch ? Consider applying beneficial nematodes into your soil environment (nearest where your pumpkin plants might be set in ground later) once the warmth of spring is assured and let them defeat the eggs and larva there !....and the other undesirables that you do not know about.

I saw the same ad in that catalog. I too have considered using them this year as I have some raspberry cane borers that can do their stuff to wilt-over the tips of some occasional canes. I will apply to the soil areas where my rasps are located....and would like to see no borer effects this season !

3/3/2009 11:53:04 PM

Oz

The eggs are laid on the underside of the leaves.
I have seen the mom on top of a leaf,waiting for some sunshine,to warm up.
That is a good time to whack them with a fly swatter.

The eggs hatch,and the grubs make their way to the main vine.
They tend to enter at the base of a leaf stem.
A small "smutch" of tan poop will be at the hole site.
They migrate to the base of the root/stem.
This is where they do their killing.

Right before they are ready to dig into the ground,to finish their growth cycle,they cut the main vine to pieces.
That is when you see the leafs wilting.

I would think that you could do a pre-treatment,with the nematodes,before the grubs hatch.
Perhaps when the plant is only two or three feet long.

In the south of the USA,the SVB can have two or more growth cycles.
I wonder what the nematodes eat,while they wait on a SVB?

3/4/2009 11:40:19 AM

Honesdale Pa USA

Rocky likes cheese!

3/4/2009 7:10:13 PM

[email protected]

I stopped using meth and inject these little babies into my system now.. Helps ease the pain of not hitting a thousand pounder yet!

This is our year Ned! Faaaaahhgettt about that guy in Dyberry Patch... We tested the pumpkin of his for steroids and it came up positive.. We are now refferring to him as "A-Box".

3/6/2009 9:51:25 PM

Honesdale Pa USA

My cousin injected that pumpkin when I wasn't looking! But I'm not going to talk about the past. Though it did resemble Bond's head!

3/8/2009 7:13:57 PM

Gold Hill, Oregon

tomato man try using some latex paint on the end of your vines you cut to keep out the vine borers.

3/9/2009 2:05:32 AM