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I have zucchini, yellow squash, broccoli, hot peppers, cucumbers, winter squash and tomatoes and am looking to find the best overall, low cost insecticide I can for them all. I haven't noticed a problem anywhere yet but in my zucchini, where I believe something is eating the small ones. I really know nothing about insecticides so any help is appreciated.
Make sure you have a problem. then identify that problem and target it specifically. Trying to use a broad spectrum insecticide for every imagined problem is akin to poking the shotgun out of window and blasting away because you heard a noise in the backyard. Granted you may do less damge with a 410 gauge loaded with birdshot, than with a 10 gauge magnum loaded with buckshot. For the most part, only the vineborer is really deadly to squash. It is hard to control witha broad spectrum insecticide. [HYPERLINK@www.gardenguides.com] Anything that will kill the borer will also kill your pollinators, so application of insecticides requires both knowledge and skill. [HYPERLINK@www.okstate.edu] Squash bugs can be a pest, but I have not had a great problem with them over the years. Slugs do a number on young plants and small squash. Slug baits or traps are the better mode of attack for them.
It is possible that it is slugs, because I have seen then in and around the yard before. I haven't seen any bugs on them per se, just the eaten ends off the young zucchini. I was just trying to nip the problem before it became a problem.
Slug Remedy. After a good rain, spray your foliage with a mixture of 50% brewed coffee and 50% water in a sprayer. I've heard the slugs can't take the caffeine in the coffee. The rain forces the slugs to climb up onto your plants to get out of the water. So you can hit 'em high while they're out.
