"MY ABC's Of Nature" Series-Letter "S" Continued-Part 39 (WP 101)

"My ABC's of Nature" Series-LETTER "S" Continued-Part 39 (WP 101)

LETTER "S" CONTINUED

SQUASH BUG

Yesterday morning it was cold and windy, so you can imagine how surprised I was to see this big bug on the side of my house. I thought all of the bugs would be gone by now. Look at those legs; they remind me of spider legs!

The Squash Bug is a true bug from a large family of insects Coreidae, of the order Hemiptera and there are over 1,800 species. This squash bug is the Anasa tristis species. They are a fairly close relative of the Leaf-footed bug and are common throughout the U.S. They are usually dark gray to dark brown. If you crush them they give off a very unpleasant odor. No, I did not crush this one; I found this bit of information while doing my research.

They are a huge pest for squash and pumpkins and they are a smaller pest of melons and cucumbers. Squash bugs can completely destroy small plants and vines. Their feeding is first seen as yellow spots that will later turn black. Vines that have been fed on will turn black and dry out which can be mistaken for bacteria wilt. Like all true bugs, squash bugs have piercing, sucking mouth parts that suck out the sap.

You will begin to see female squash bugs in gardens in early June and they will continue to lay eggs through mid summer. Females lay eggs on the leaves of plants they drink from, in clusters of 4-40 in rows on the underside of leaves. They may also lay their eggs on stems. In approximately 10 days the eggs will hatch and the nymphs will become adults in 4-6 weeks. In the fall when the vines have died, the adults and nymphs will come togther on a squash fruit. When temperatures drop to freezing the nymphs die. Adult squash bugs will crawl or fly to sheltered places; under plant debris, under rocks or around buildings (like mine.) They will emerge in the spring and fly to growing cucumber plants to feed and mate.

You know how I like to get a photo of the face of my insect. I smashed my body and the side of my face on the cold brick wall to get this photo. You can't see the face of this squash bug because I didn't want to get too close. Not knowing what I was dealing with at the time and with the legs reminding me of spiders, this was as close as I was going to get; even with a zoom lens.

This series will continue with the letter "T" in my next post. Thanks for looking!

Information Source: umn.edu, psu.edu, en.factolex.com

Image Source: 100% own work.