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Lexington, Ky

Buddy of mine has a crop of various varieties of field pumpkins and squash (couple acres). He plants them back to back north/south. The last few days he has been losing several of the plants that are facing north. Symptom is two to three day wilting and dead by day 5. These plants are a little over 30 days old, 3 to 4 feet mains, good side vines.

Initial thought by the grower was SVB. I went to his field this evening and saw no fras and no entry/exit holes. We pulled up 10 or 12 and there was a noticeable brown mush/rot in the portion of the crown that is underground. We finally broke open one plant that had 8 to 10 small worms with a tiny, tiny black speck. The were very small, thin worms and they crawled like an inch worm or caterpillar.

I've never seen that many SVB's in one plant all in the same place before..and no fras and the small size leads me to believe the larve are something else. But, corn seed maggots this late into the season? It's odd that the affected plants face north, every one of them. No obvious entry or exit holes but these things are so small it would take a magnifying glass to find them I think.

Any ideas on what they are? Treatment?

7/24/2014 7:52:26 PM

Central NY

Not sure what they are but I would say treatment could be plant all plants facing south

7/24/2014 9:36:24 PM

Williamsburg,KY

My guess would be SVB..the eggs are small, so the borer would be small when very young. They are white with a black head. Pictures are worth a thousand words. A pic would be great.

7/25/2014 8:09:32 AM

Lexington, Ky

Shout out to John Van Hook for taking the time to chat with this grower last night. Local University has confirmed seed corn maggots. John made the diagnoses over the phone without seeing any evidence...lol. It was my gut feel as well.

FWIW, 4 to 5 generations per year are possible in KY...yikes.

7/25/2014 9:13:15 AM