
Squash: A Decoy to Sidetrack Pests from
MelonsBy Jan Suszkiw December 16, 1996Squash em!--but
not literally. Thats the advice of scientists, who showed that squash
plants will lure cucumber beetles and squash bugs away from more valuable crops
like watermelon and cantaloupe. The tactic, according to the scientists at the
Agricultural Research Service, could be
a new way to reduce insecticide sprays on commercial melon crops. Since squash is the insects favorite cucurbit, they will feed on it
first. In spring, growers typically spray plant seedlings with insecticide two
to three times. But they could use less insecticide by planting one or two rows
of squash as a trap crop around the fields perimeter. In experimental watermelon and cantaloupe plots, the tactic lured up to 66
percent of a plots total population of the insects. The attraction was
fatal for 90 percent of them, because the scientists sprayed insecticide only
on the squash perimeter of a plot. Commercial growers in Texas and Oklahoma are helping the scientists run
large-scale field studies. In the Midwest, the approach could also help stop
cucumber beetles from spreading a bacterial disease, cucurbit wilt, through the
melon patch. Scientific contact: Sam D. Pair, USDA-ARS
Southcentral Agricultural
Research Laboratory, Lane, Okla., phone (405) 889-7395. U.S. Department of Agriculture | |