Bug update

Well, everyone I've heard from has confirmed that the insect in the top photo of my last post is a striped cucumber beetle. The second is harder to pin down, but it seems likely that it is a squash bug...a bad bug. I was hoping it was a good one.

Anyway, the very next day I went outside and was surprised that I could find only a fraction of the bugs I saw the day before. I was scouring those plants and found very few cucumber beetles. The few I found were hiding inside the closing blossoms of various plants. I found one squash bug on a zucchini I was picking and I killed it. I haven't seen any more since. My husband says he's seen 5 or 6, but I've only seen two. And I've been wandering in the garden on the lookout.

Either they are good at hiding (and I'm bad at seeing) or maybe the birds have gotten them? We have a tree and birdfeeder at the corner of the garden and that corner has become bird hangout central this summer. I attribute our low bug population up to this point in part to the many birds.

In my reading, I'm starting to think I am lucky that these bugs only appeared now after my plants are well established. They could have been devestating if they'd appeared when the plants were small and starting out. Next year will be a worry as there may be descendents from these current bugs. I will be keeping an eye out for these critters and will be looking into what I can do to fight them.

Today's local weather:
High temp: 87 F
Low temp: 67 F
Scattered severe thunderstorms