I have an infestation of squash bugs in my pumpkin patch. Q

[Tracy]

can I, or should I, harvest my pumpkins now and let them ripen off the vines? They are pretty much all completely orange. I don't think I can control these bugs. Much as I hate to, I did dust a little sevin out there, but I know that sevin isn't effective on mature squash bugs. (I hate using it, but I figure a little sevin on a few vegetables isn't as much pesticide as I will get when I buy and eat canned pumpkin from WalMart!)

Any suggestions about harvesting these pumpkins? There's 35-40 of them and I really, really, really don't want to lose them!

[oletimer]

Tracy , don't worry abiout using the sevin. By the time you harvest them all will be washed away and you will have to peel them to use them for food any way. If it was me I would go liquid sevin and a pump-up sprayer. Local farm store may help also.

If the vines are just about dead then harvest them and put in a cool dry place, should be OK. Good luck.

[Tracy]

Tracy , don't worry abiout using the sevin. By the time you harvest them all will be washed away and you will have to peel them to use them for food any way. If it was me I would go liquid sevin and a pump-up sprayer. Local farm store may help also.

If the vines are just about dead then harvest them and put in a cool dry place, should be OK. Good luck.

Thank you! The vines are dying back, but I'm not sure if that is because it is naturally time for them to do so, or from the bugs. I *think* they are doing it natually for the most part, because my winter squash vines are doing the same thing, and bugs aren't bothering them. Also, most of the squash bugs are babies right now. Hundreds of them. Thousands maybe. And I don't think they are big enough or have spread out enough to do too much damage to the vines. They are still clustered mainly on the pumpkins themselves. Next year I'll try to stay on top of it more.

I would really like to just harvest them rather than put more chemicals on them. I have two kinds out there--Small Sugar and Howden. It has been about 90 days since I planted them, so we are pretty close to harvest time anyway. I just want to make sure that they will in fact continue to ripen if I pick them. I want to freeze lots of pumpkin; we love pumpkin in our family, and we eat it all year long.

Thanks for your help!
Tracy