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Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

I'm working on pinning and burying, and we've had (I killed in another patch) SVB sighting during spraying. Should I leave node tops free to be able to spray them and look for frass, or not? Next spray is Friday and this is Wednesday... [first spray was with VTJohn's mix of Merit and Talstar as he suggested and another echoed]

Thoughts on this would be appreciated. Oh the burying is at least the underhalf and the same sterile starting/potting commercial mix I use in the greenhouse.

Tangent, our local paper said they would accept some vine/patch pictures of anyone's progress; so Friday when we mass spray I will take pictures. Heh!

6/18/2008 2:58:00 PM

Windsor, Ontario, Canada

Every two days I train/prune/bury. I examine the vine for any eggs prior to burying. Also before I bury, I spray the vine with bifenthrin and let it dry. That should cover any eggs that I missed.

Examining the plant in small sections like this makes it much less tedious.

6/18/2008 3:26:05 PM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

I'm sorta doing a mass bury on the big one, and the little ones I'm not seeing anything, I think I got the first spray in time... if I miss, the Merit and bifenthrin regular sprayings should also get them, right? And, once I get caught up hopefully no more SVB's... [I thought Merit is taken up by the plant and kills them when they munch.. and the bifenthrin is a contact killer] And I am on a spray schedule now to keep the SVB's away.

It's so hot when I usually do patch work I don't want to spray at that time, and if I wait to an hour before dark the mosquitos eat me alive even if I'm dosed with the strongest DEET I can get...

Comments, opinions... telling me I need to go back to growing tomatoes instead...

6/18/2008 4:36:16 PM

Windsor, Ontario, Canada

I just did a mass burial to catch up. I sprayed all vines to be safe. I don't think spraying only vines a second time will hurt much. I don't think much is absorbed that way. Let it dry then bury.

You are right though, the merit will cover any bugs that make it to dinner.

Don't give up, stick with the pumpkins.

6/18/2008 6:53:26 PM

a couple things to think about in this thread talstar works as a contact if burying it i dont see it helping. when and if a vine borer enters a leaf stalk it falls down inside hollow stalk and then can eat its way thru to hollow main below leaf junction hopefully the merit will kill them

6/18/2008 7:29:44 PM

Windsor, Ontario, Canada

I get alot of eggs on the vine itself. The product I use is Bifen I/T (insecticide/termiticide). The instructions specify a rate for spraying dirt next to foundations to protect from termites. So, it will still protect in dirt from eggs on vine. However, I agree that it will not do anything for eggs on stalks. For that, I spray bifen on stalks and leaf undersides.

6/18/2008 8:01:00 PM

eggs will be laid above ground on plant not beneath dirt but termites are a whole differnt type of underground living thing

6/18/2008 8:14:52 PM

Windsor, Ontario, Canada

I mean, if eggs are laid above ground, on the vine, and then you bury the vine. If you didn't spray, the eggs will hatch under ground and still be a problem.

6/18/2008 8:16:37 PM

Western PA

Will Bifen Kill the eggs, or will it do the killing when the eggs hatch? The reason I ask is it says on the back of my bottle to spray every 14 days, and as far as i know it takes 7-10 days for SVB eggs to hatch.. If the eggs were laid right after the plant was sprayed then the eggs would hatch at the tail end of the effectiveness of the bifen which i assume would be a problem...

How well does the bifen stand up to heavy rains, if I get a heavy rain or two should I reapply?

How long is the SVB season in the Western, pa area?

Sorry, for all the questions. Thanks in advance for any input.

6/19/2008 12:25:03 AM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

VTJohn posted on another thread where I asked about stuff to spray, he said 1/8 tsp Merit (75%) and 1/2 oz talstar/bifen to a gallon and spray every 10 days, avoid the last 5-6" of growing tip, do leaves top and bottom and drench ground. Do it just before dark, then in early morning water to get the merit into the ground. It seems to have worked well here, and I would think that if there are any that I buried, the merit would nail them, and the bifen will take care of everything above ground... but. I had doubts so I posted.... about should I bury the top of vines and top of nodes too. I know I should uncover vines when fruit is set...

6/19/2008 3:38:23 PM

Windsor, Ontario, Canada

Bifenthrin stands up well to rain. I never re-applied except when I was scheduled to. I imagine your SVB season is same as mine, so if you make it into mid august and you dont see any problems, you should be good. Some places get 2 generations but we shouldn't.

Eggs hatch every 5-10 days, so yes, unsprayed tips that get eggs right after a spray, if left 10 days, could pose a problem I think. I spray every 7 days.

6/21/2008 1:55:15 PM

Western PA

Thanks for the help!

Do you know if the Bifen kills the egg or does it kill the larvae when it comes out of the egg?

6/22/2008 11:41:34 PM

Windsor, Ontario, Canada

Kills the larva when they bite in. Though I have seen some eggs that turned black (rather than usual rust) and they looked dead. Not certain if it can kill eggs too.

6/23/2008 12:02:08 AM