Welcome the spring with newly germinated seedlings using only egg cartons and shells!

RELATED: How To Raise Quail For Eggs And Meat

In this article:

1. Using Eggshells to Start Your Seeds
2. Using Egg Cartons to Start Your Seeds

Learn How to Use Egg Carton and Shells to Grow Seeds

Using Eggshells to Start Your Seeds

If you have an empty egg carton material lying around, you can use it to begin growing your garden. Now is the right time to do so as spring is just around the corner.

In this blog post, you will learn two methods on how to do it.

Let’s begin with eggshells. The great thing about this project is nothing ever goes to waste.

The eggshells will hold the healthy plant while the empty egg carton box can keep the shells in place and safe.

Once the seed starts to germinate and grow, you can plant the entire shell into the soil. The shell may also help provide additional nutrients to the plant.

Directions:

1. Save your eggshells. Rinse them, so they won’t become sticky or smelly.
2. Add soil to the eggshells. You want to be sure to use seed-starting soil. This is a lighter soil that allows the root system to grow freely through the plant so it becomes strong and healthy.
3. Add the seeds to the soil and slightly push down just until it covers fully the seeds. Make sure you don’t push them too deep. Otherwise, it will take longer for your seedlings to germinate.
4. Water your seeds preferably with a spritzer bottle, especially for very small ones, so it doesn’t push the seeds too deep into the soil. Keep the soil moist but not soaked. Carefully poke a tiny hole perhaps with a nail at the bottom of the eggshell for water drainage.
5. If you really want to give your seeds a jump start, place the eggshells in plastic egg cartons, which act as mini-greenhouses, and put the lid on. Once your seeds sprout, remove the lid so mold does not develop.
6. Put them in a sunny window and enjoy watching them grow.

What Is a Greenhouse? It is a structure that can help protect the plants from environmental elements and regulate warm temperature.

If your weather is ready for planting, then put the plant into the soil, eggshell and all!

RELATED: 10 Gardening Tips And Tricks You Can Use Right Now!

Using Egg Cartons to Start Your Seeds

If you find using eggshells a hassle or you don’t have them, go straight with egg cartons. They will still help you germinate seeds inside your home.

Materials:

• Paper egg carton
• Potting soil
• Seeds
• Toothpicks
• Plastic wrap

Note: You can use the dimples within the egg cartons as individual seed-starter pots.

Directions:

1. Take an empty cardboard egg carton and poke a small hole in the bottom of each dimple to allow for water drainage.
2. Fill each individual dimple with seed-starting soil.
3. Plant seeds according to the planting-depth instructions (found on the back of the packet) in each individual dimple.
4. Mist with water regularly keeping the soil moist (but not soaked). You may want to keep the carton on a plate so the water doesn’t go everywhere.
5. To give extra warmth and humidity (if needed), cover the top of the egg carton with plastic wrap, which can work as a little tent. To prop it up, position toothpicks in the middle of the clear egg carton.
6. Place the carton in a sunny spot and watch the plants grow!
7. Once the seeds start to sprout, cut apart the individual dimples and plant the seedlings straight into your prepared garden or pot. There is no need to remove the sprouting seed from the carton—just plant the whole thing!

Check out this video from eHow Garden to learn more about how to plant seeds in egg cartons:

There you have it — two easy, earth-friendly, and cheap egg cartons crafts you can do today. All you need to do is save some of the eggshells from cooking.

Once the weather is right, start planting and let the shells supply the nutrients.

Have you tried growing seeds from egg cartons? Tell us about it in the comments section below!

UP NEXT: 

• 20 Survival Gardening Plants For Spring
• 12 Budget Friendly Must-Haves For Every Beginner Gardener
• Container Gardening Tips For Preppers And Survivalists

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on January 20, 2016, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.

Since the end of the last recession, the outlook for the U.S. economy has never been as dire as it is right now.  Everywhere you look, economic red flags are popping up, and the mainstream media is suddenly full of stories about “the coming recession”.  After several years of relative economic stability, things appear to be changing dramatically for the U.S. economy and the global economy as a whole.  Over and over again, we are seeing things happen that we have not witnessed since the last recession, and many analysts expect our troubles to accelerate as we head into the final months of 2019.

We should certainly hope that things will soon turn around, but at this point that does not appear likely.  The following are 28 signs of economic doom as the pivotal month of September begins…

#1 The U.S. and China just slapped painful new tariffs on one another, thus escalating the trade war to an entirely new level.

#2 JPMorgan Chase is projecting that the trade war will cost “the average U.S. household” $1,000 per year.

#3 Yield curve inversions have preceded every single U.S. recession since the 1950s, and the fact that it has happened again is one of the big reasons why Wall Street is freaking out so much lately.

#4 We just witnessed the largest decline in U.S. consumer sentiment in 7 years.

#5 Mortgage defaults are rising at the fastest pace that we have seen since the last financial crisis.

#6 Sales of luxury homes valued at $1.5 million or higher were down five percent during the second quarter of 2019.

#7 The U.S. manufacturing sector has contracted for the very first time since September 2009.

#8 The Cass Freight Index has been falling for a number of months.  According to CNBC, it fell “5.9% in July, following a 5.3% decline in June and a 6% drop in May.”

#9 Gross private domestic investment in the United States was down 5.5 percent during the second quarter of 2019.

#10 Crude oil processing at U.S. refiners has fallen by the most that we have seen since the last recession.

#11 The price of copper often gives us a clear indication of where the economy is heading, and it is now down 13 percent over the last six months.

#12 When it looks like an economic crisis is coming, investors often flock to precious metals.  So it is very interesting to note that the price of gold is up more than 20 percent since May.

#13 Women’s clothing retailer Forever 21 “is reportedly close to filing for bankruptcy protection”.

#14 We just learned that Sears and Kmart will close “nearly 100 additional stores” by the end of this year.

#15 Domestic shipments of RVs have fallen an astounding 20 percent so far in 2019.

#16 The Labor Department has admitted that the U.S. economy actually has 501,000 less jobs than they previously thought.

#17 S&P 500 earnings per share estimates have been steadily falling all year long.

#18 Morgan Stanley says that the possibility that we will see a global recession “is high and rising”.

#19 Global trade fell 1.4 percent in June from a year earlier, and that was the biggest drop that we have seen since the last recession.

#20 The German economy contracted during the second quarter, and the German central bank “is predicting the third quarter will also post a decline”.

#21 According to CNBC, the S&P 500 “just sent a screaming sell signal” to U.S. investors.

#22 Masanari Takada is warning that we could soon see a “Lehman-like” plunge in the stock market.

#23 Corporate insiders are dumping stocks at a pace that we haven’t seen in more than a decade.

#24 Apple CEO Tim Cook has been dumping millions of dollars worth of Apple stock.

#25 Instead of pumping his company’s funds into the stock market, Warren Buffett has decided to hoard 122 billion dollars in cash.  This appears to be a clear indication that he believes that a crisis is coming.

#26 Investors are selling their shares in emerging markets funds at a pace that we have never seen before.

#27 The Economic Policy Uncertainty Index hit the highest level that we have ever seen in the month of June.

#28 Americans are searching Google for the term “recession” more frequently than we have seen at any time since 2009.

The signs are very clear, but unfortunately we live at a time when “normalcy bias” is rampant in our society.

If you are not familiar with “normalcy bias”, the following is how Wikipedia defines it…

The normalcy bias, or normality bias, is a belief people hold when considering the possibility of a disaster. It causes people to underestimate both the likelihood of a disaster and its possible effects, because people believe that things will always function the way things normally have functioned. This may result in situations where people fail to adequately prepare themselves for disasters, and on a larger scale, the failure of governments to include the populace in its disaster preparations. About 70% of people reportedly display normalcy bias in disasters.^[1]

For most Americans, the crisis of 2008 and 2009 is now a distant memory, and the vast majority of the population seems confident that brighter days are ahead even if we must weather a short-term economic recession first.  As a result, most people are not preparing for a major economic crisis, and that makes us extremely vulnerable.

In 2008 and 2009, the horrible financial crisis and the bitter recession that followed took most Americans completely by surprise.

It will be the same this time around, even though the warning signs are there for all to see.

About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.

The post 28 Signs Of Economic Doom As The Pivotal Month Of September Begins appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse Blog.

A new study has discovered that we are far more dependent on America’s great debt creation machine than most of us would have ever dared to imagine.  Today, debt is involved in most of our major transactions.

In order to purchase a home, most of us go into debt.  The same thing is true when most of us buy a vehicle.  Total credit card debt is well over a trillion dollars, and total student loan debt is now over a trillion and a half dollars.  Corporate debt has more than doubled since the last financial crisis, state and local governments are absolutely drowning in debt and unfunded pension liabilities, and the federal government is more than 22 trillion dollars in debt.  The Federal Reserve and the “too big to fail” banks are at the core of this insidious debt-based system, and it has been systematically destroying the bright future that our children and our grandchildren were supposed to have.  But if we suddenly turned off America’s great debt creation machine at this point, our entire economic system would totally collapse because we have become so dependent on it.  In fact, a study that was just conducted by Bloomberg discovered that “gross domestic product per capita would plunge into negative territory” if the ability to borrow was suddenly removed…

The nation’s health as measured by gross domestic product per capita would plunge into negative territory without its dependence on borrowed money, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

In fact, the U.S. would fall almost to the bottom of a ranking of 114 economies by GDP per capita. Only Italy, Greece and Japan would fare worse. That’s a seismic shift from America’s comfortable No. 5 spot on a list based on conventional measures.

Our massively inflated debt-fueled standard of living is completely and utterly dependent on the continual creation of more debt.

In essence, this study found that without debt we wouldn’t have much of an economy at all.  In fact, Bloomberg says that U.S. per capita income would collapse from $66,900 a year to “negative $4,857”…

To get this somewhat dystopian measure, Bloomberg took each economy’s 2020 GDP as projected by the International Monetary Fund as a starting point. We then adjusted the number by removing the ability to borrow, while adding reserves to create an alternative wealth measure.

U.S. per capita income of $66,900 would be slashed to a negative $4,857 using this measure. That’s a total loss of almost $72,000 for every man, woman and child.

So the only thing keeping us from complete and total economic collapse is the fact that debt is flowing like wine.

But what would happen if some sort of major national crisis erupted someday and all of a sudden everyone was afraid to lend money?

That is something to think about, because such a scenario may be a whole lot closer than many people might think.

As it stands, we appear to be on the precipice of the worst economic downturn since the last financial crisis, and our trade war with China just went to an entirely new level as the month of September began…

The biggest reason for last week’s torrid stock market rally was rekindled “optimism” that the escalating trade war between the US and China may be on the verge of another ceasefire following phone conversations, fake as they may have been, between the US and Chinese side. This translated into speculation that a new round of tariffs increases slated for this weekend may not take place or be delayed.

However, that did not happen, and with no trade deal in sight, at 12:00am on Sunday, the Trump administration slapped tariffs on $112 billion in Chinese imports, the latest escalation in a trade war that’s ground the global economy to a halt, sent Germany into a recession, and given the market an alibi to keep rising because, wait for it, “a trade deal is imminent.”

Only, it isn’t, and 1 minute later, at 12:01am EDT, China retaliated with higher tariffs being rolled out in stages on a total of about $75 billion of U.S. goods. The target list strikes at the heart of Trump’s political support – factories and farms across the Midwest and South at a time when the U.S. economy is showing signs of slowing down.

The Chinese knew that these tariffs were about to go into effect, and so they were ready and waiting to retaliate just one minute later.

Of course, many U.S. companies will be hit extremely hard by these tariffs that the Trump administration just implemented.  The following comes from CNBC…

That means that when an electronics company imports a TV, or a smart speaker, or a drone from China starting September 1, it will have to pay a 15% tax to the U.S. government.

Eventually, this will end up raising prices on gadgets and other products for people in the United States, said Bronwyn Flores, a spokeswoman for the Consumer Tech Association (CTA), a trade group that represents 2,000 different companies in the electronics industry, including brands like Apple and LG and retailers like Walmart and Best Buy.

Basically, people are not going to be able to buy as much stuff during the holiday shopping season, and overall economic activity will be slower than it otherwise would have been.

Meanwhile, President Trump continues to sound hopeful that trade talks with China will bear fruit…

President Donald Trump said trade talks with Beijing are still planned for September after a new round of tariffs went into effect on Sunday.

“We are talking to China, the meetings in September, that hasn’t changed,” Trump told reporters Sunday on the White House South Lawn after returning from Camp David.

These sorts of comments helped stabilize the financial markets last week, but if there was any hope that a trade agreement was imminent we would not have seen both sides impose new tariffs on Sunday.

And now we are moving into the month that is traditionally the worst for Wall Street.  The following comes from Fox Business…

Investors may breathe a sigh of relief that August, typically a volatile month for stocks, is over, but history shows that September could be even worse for Wall Street.

Since 1950, September has been the worst month for the S&P 500 Index, which has dropped, on average, 0.5% during the month, a phenomenon referred to as the September effect. According to Dow Jones market data, the average decline of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in September is 1%, while the Nasdaq Composite generally sees an average fall of 0.5%.

We shall see what this September brings.  Certainly things are really shaky on Wall Street right now, and any piece of really bad news is likely to set off another wave of panic.

Without a doubt, the market is more primed for a crash than it has been at any point since 2008, and it definitely will not take much to make this a “September to remember”…

There is more benefits to creating homemade bug spray than just removing harmful chemicals from your life. Sure, DIY cleaning and pesticides are way better than those mixed up in large vats but what if that bug spray finds its way into our survival kits?

RELATED STORY

Killer Bugs: Keep Disease Carrying Insects and Parasites Out

What Your Kit is Missing

There are two common sense items that many people overlook when preparing a kit. This kit could be a bugout bag or even a simple survival kit.

While you might have the high speed water filter, multiple methods for starting fire, a simple and effective shelter and maybe you even have something like a frog gig for procuring food, what are you missing?

Many people don’t think about bug spray. In fact, sunscreen and homemade bug spray are often overlooked because they don’t sell them in “tacticool” containers that attach to MOLLE or slip onto a gun rail. We get a little full of ourselves in the survival and prepping world.

That high powered AR15 cannot protect you from the effects of sleep deprivation, if you are up swatting mosquitoes all night.

Dealing with bugs is not a joke and it can go way beyond discomfort and sleep loss. Still, many people build bugout bags that are void of a means to keep the bugs away.

Disease and Discomfort of Dealing with Bugs

While ticks, chiggers and mosquitoes might seem like a nuisance and nothing more, they can carry disease. These diseases can range in severity but some of the worst can really wreak havoc on the human body.

Ever heard of malaria? While not a problem in the US, this mosquito borne disease infected 220 million people last year and killed 435,000. We have our own problems in the US with things like Lyme’s Disease and a growing list of mosquito borne illnesses.

The scariest thing about Lyme’s Disease is that its misdiagnosed regularly. People can go decades without understanding their affliction.

Keep these little monsters at bay, and the diseases they carry, with this homemade bug spray recipe.

Homemade Bug Spray Recipe

When it comes to homemade bug spray, it doesn’t get much easier than this. Honestly, this is a mix up and spray recipe. The base is vodka and that goes a long way with deterring bugs. The addition of the essential oils also helps with that.

Whether you decide to use the coconut oil, olive oil or vegetable glycerin is up to you. Just understand that you need something to smooth this out. You will have problems if you spend all day spraying alcohol on your skin or your kids’ skin.

INGREDIENTS

• ¼ Cup of vodka
• ¼ Cup of water
• 1 TBSP of fractionated coconut oil, olive oil or vegetable glycerin
• 50 Drops of lavender essential oil
• 1 TSP of pure vanilla extract

PROCESS

This mix all goes into a spray bottle or a mason jar and can be shook to combine. That is literally the entire process!

Interesting fact about vanilla: Gnats, flies and mosquitoes among many other bugs, hate the smell of vanilla.

How to Store or Pack your DIY Homemade Bug Spray

When we are talking about long term storage for this spray you could keep it in that mason jar. The alcohol base will hold this mix for a long time. However, you should keep it out of direct sunlight. The oils will not last forever and direct sun will only shorten shelf life.

Now, you do not want to carry around a big spray bottle in your backpack. There are a couple ways to put this mix to use.

1. You could find a small vile with a spray top. Something like a little cologne bottle would work well. Some hand sanitizers work this way as well. The smaller and more compact the better. Just be sure you have some sort of safety or lid to avoid spraying it all into your bag.
2. You could take small squares of cloth (old shirt or shemagh cut up) and place them into a Ziploc. Pour some of your homemade bug spray into the Ziploc bag to coat the cloth. Don’t add a bunch of extra liquid to the bag but use enough to get them wet. Now these can be used as wipes to apply.

Pack up your homemade bug spray and take it on your next adventure. Or add it to your bugout bags, get home bags and anywhere else you might need it. You’ll be prepared to keep those buzzing and biting creatures at bay.

For the most recent copy of Survivor’s Edge or American Frontiersman or to subscribe, go to OutdoorGroupStore.com.

There’s nothing like the sweetness of honey, and when SHTF you can sustain yourself with a supply of it. Beekeeping gives us many useful products and food, including honey and beeswax. Beeswax is used for both candles and soap, and honey has dozens of uses.

Bees are the Livestock for Serious Preppers

While bees are much smaller than the animal livestock that come to mind, they produce many products that are useful and can be kept in storage for years.

1. Hives do not take up much space. This makes it sustainable as far as land use. Bees pollinate all flowering plants. If you have a hive and a garden, the garden has nearby pollinators to keep vegetables growing throughout the growing season.
2. Honey is the perfect food and can last for centuries. A good, healthy hive can produce 50 pounds of honey. When supermarkets close, and sugar and sweeteners are hard to come by, a reliable source of honey will be valuable. Honey is a great source of calories if you are ever in a situation where food is scarce. It boosts the immune system and can be used in canning and baking.
   There are primarily two different kinds of honey that beekeepers harvest from their hives. The most common type of honey is liquid honey extracted from the comb. This is easily extracted with centrifuge equipment called an extractor. Most beekeepers use ready-made extractors, but some make their own.
   The second form of honey produced is known as comb honey. This is when the honey is left within the original wax combs. Comb honey is a lot less common than liquid honey, but many people prefer the more natural flavor.
3. Beeswax provides light and soap. This can be used to make slow burning candles perfect for grid down situations. Beeswax can also be used in soaps and this soap lasts longer. Beeswax helps to waterproof leather and other textures that have to be out in weather.

Bees For Healing

There are medicinal properties to honey that go far beyond allergy prevention. Propolis is the glue that bees make to repair and weatherproof their hives. This has antibiotic properties that can be used to fight infection. And some research indicates that propolis also has anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, and wound healing properties. Propolis can be collected from hives and needed when pharmacy shelves are bare.

Bee pollen is one of the most complete and compact foods in nature. It is loaded with vitamins, minerals, proteins and enzymes. It’s been used for centuries in Chinese medicine to boost energy, fight acne, fight depression, improve blood pressure and aid in digestion. Install pollen traps on your hives to collect the left-over pollen.

How to Start a Beehive

1. Bees can usually be kept anywhere, but be sure to check with local county regulations. Rural preppers will have less trouble finding a convenient spot for a hive. Suburban preppers can keep a hive in the backyard. A small fence is recommended as a precaution to keep kids and pets away. You want bees to fly higher past an obstacle such as a fence, so a stream of bees won’t go into your neighbor’s face.
2. Check with surrounding neighbors before getting started. If anyone has a big problem with your plan, this is the time to resolve issues. Some people are deathly allergic to bees, so you may have to reconsider. Set up in another location with a friend or family member, and offer to share the benefits.
3. Buy or build the beehive. Beehives are available on Amazon or your local beekeepers organization can help you. Beehives can be made from a variety of materials.
4. Buy necessary equipment. This includes a queen catcher, bee smoker, bee feeders, and other accessories that you will learn more about as you get into beekeeping.
5. Purchase safety gear such as a beekeeper suit. This will include a hat, veil, safety footwear and gloves.
6. Purchase bees for the new colony. Make sure you buy these bees are from a reputable source. Your orders should be placed by February at the latest. Apiaries will begin shipping orders in March and April, depending on your location. Most will ship with the United States Postal Service. The queen bee will come in a separate container. The rest of the bees will be feeding on a sugar solution while they are being shipped.

Installing Bees into the New Hive

Step 1 – Meet your bees
Before opening the package, spray some sugar syrup outside of the box to prevent the bees from flying around. Make sure your smoker is lit and smoking nicely. You may not need it as the bees will be docile from transportation, but you want to be safe just in case. Pry open the box with your hive tool and dislodge the bees by vigorously shaking the package.

Step 2 – Remove the queen
If your bee package has the queen in a separate cage, leave the queen until after all bees have been installed in the hive.

Step 3 – Remove hive frames
Remove some frames from the top of the hive. The number of frames to remove and the placement for the false bottom will depend on the size of your new colony.

Usually, it is recommended to place the false bar about 10 bars from the front of the hive. This way you can establish a brood nest right in front of the hive.

Step 4 – Put the bees in the hive
Empty the package into the hive through the opening. This is where your bee brush or feather will come in handy. Scatter any clusters around the bee cage and ensure that all bees are transferred from the package into the hive.

Additional Notes after Installing Bees

• Don’t touch the hive for at least a week. The bees need time to accept the queen. If the queen has been released from her cage, then she has been fully accepted by the colony. If not, you may need to give the hive a helping hand.
• Keep the feeder full during this time.
• Bees will be very confused and fly haphazardly. In no time they will adjust and become more coordinated.
• When you notice undertaker bees taking out the dead bees, then you’ll know that the colony is doing well. Also, look out for bees gathering pollen, this is another sign that the colony is thriving.

After a successful installation, you’ll need to give the bees time to adapt to their surroundings. Inspect the hive and ensure that they have started gathering pollen and nectar. They should begin to build the comb.

Starting a Hive without Buying Bees

If you are going to catch bees in the wild to start your own hive, the easiest swarms to collect are bees on tree branches. All you really need to do is cut the branch and gently place or shake the branch inside a container.

Bees on a fence post or flat surface are not that easy to collect. You will need to guide the bees into the box by brushing them gently with a bee brush or cardboard. They can also be guided to the container by using a smoker to direct and encourage them to move in the opposite direction.

Using a smoker will entail spraying the box with a sugar and water solution to attract the bees and keep them in the container. Then placing the smoker in the direction that you DON’T want the bees to go. Sometimes using more than one smoker may be necessary to get the swarm where you want them.

To transfer the bees from the container to your hive, gently shake the container and give them a nudge. Make sure the hive is ready to receive the new bees.

Don’t forget to wear safety clothing. Also, it’s a good idea to take a smoker on your bee collection adventure so that you can calm any ill-tempered bees down. Basically, follow the rest of the steps the same way to get the bees and the queen used to your hive.

Bees are not as aggressive as their reputation often lends them to be. Bees tend to focus on their roles in their colony. Beekeeping does require a bit of work and a new skill set. But, if it fits your lifestyle, this could one day prove to be one of your most valuable preps.

Written by R. Ann Parris on The Prepper Journal.

If you have a squash bug (SB) or squash vine borer (SVB) problem, it can be a big problem. Some areas have even greater trouble due to increased season length and mild winters.

Despite SB’s greater versatility, I hate SVB even more. It’s utterly devastating, and requires much more attention ahead of time, because once the plant wilts, it’s pretty much too late.

Even if you’re not growing yet and don’t have any problems, push through this one anyway, just in case. You’ll need the fixes and preventatives on hand ahead of time.

Recognize the Enemy

SVB is a moth larvae that chews into and then up through vines of susceptible cucurbits. The plant suddenly wilts, then dies. It limits its destruction to cucurbits and doesn’t usually bother thin-stemmed melons or thin-stemmed gourds.

The SB is a beetle, and spawns freakish little spidery babies that go through green and gray stages. In addition to munching all kinds of plants, they spread disease. There are similar-looking pests with very similar control and prevention difficulties.

The eggs are the best identifier ahead of time. SB lay tight, regular patterns. SVB lay fewer, more irregularly.

SVB usually lay on stems, as close to the base of the plant as possible, but I’ve found them upwards of 1’ above the ground and some trailing up under leaves.

SB wants to lay on the underside of leaves, but I’ve found those diamond clusters on stems, too.

Check other plants, too – It’s not as frequent, but SB will lay on beans, peppers, sunflowers, okra, etc. SB adults will be found anywhere, too.

Conventional Traps, Spray & Powder

In their early stages, SB is somewhat vulnerable to Sevin spray. Powder isn’t super effective and it doesn’t bother the eggs. If SVB larvae aren’t crawling across it as they hatch, it doesn’t bother them, either. Spray can be more effective on more of the life-cycle stages, but it’s “more” – it’s not total wipe-out.

Some find neem oil effective, particularly in the early life stages.

All of them have to catch the bugs to be effective. SB are active enough to evade that spray by leaping away. SVB are inside, so you have to fill those stems to catch them.

Big Ag may be able to blanket enough dust and spray to do so, but most home growers even with a tow-behind disburser are going to struggle to blanket a big enough area fast enough.

!!! – Pesticides aren’t super effective on SB and SVB, but they are wicked effective against pretty much every single beneficial bug in our gardens, from worms and fireflies and their slug-hunting larvae, to pretty much every single pollinator, bees to butterflies to hoverflies and wasps, and can even affect the gut microbiology of hummingbirds and bats. – !!!

Traps work well, but require specific attractants and have to be replaced or rejuvenated.

Conventional Prevention’s

Squash vine borers can pop up after years of not growing squashes anywhere within 200-500 yards. Squash bugs are the same, with an added problem: They like squash. They don’t need it.

That means crop rotations aren’t super effective in breaking this particular pest cycle.

The smaller our spaces, the less effective it becomes.

The mobility of the moths and adaptability of the beetles means that for most home-consumption and small-plot growers with less than an acre (‘bout a football field) per crop butting into another half- or full acre of clean, bare earth, the advice to keep a “clean” garden and avoid mulches doesn’t actually help much.

Without that space, there are too many other options for them: tree and shrub windbreaks, perennial crops and ornamentals, wood piles, overgrown ditches and fence lines, woods, lawns and pastures, straw and hay piles, gaps under sheds.

Weigh that against the values of mulches before going the bare-earth road.

Unfortunately, control once they’re established is difficult, too. Enough to make you fantasize about spraying gas and lighting a match.

Tried & True: Squish ‘Em

Good luck catching the moth. (If you find something that doesn’t affect good bugs, please share.)

To help lower the load for the beetle, carry a jar to the garden to flick them into, and a board you can squash them against.

That board is handy for collecting SB’s – so is cardboard. Lay a chunk near the plants, flip it, stomp.

Tried & True: Pluck Eggs

Attentively checking stems and leaves for little red eggs is the most effective way to control damage.

You can scrape with a butter knife or thumbnail, or try wrapping good, sticky duct tape or packing tape around hands or fingers. You’ll have to press pretty firmly.

I do not just let the eggs fall to the surface under the belief stuff will eat them there (maybe, but maybe not). Nor do I deliver them to birds (some may escape). They get carted to the trash – the trash. In a world without trash, seal them in jars/pails.

Tried & True: Stick Juveniles

I like tape for snagging itty-bitty, speedy SB babies, although you have to really stick them or they can wiggle free.

There’s also the theory of stabbing the SVB by sticking pins/toothpicks in the stems and base of squash either as a preventative or as soon as frass is visible. It has merit, especially if a plant is months into growing but isn’t anywhere near harvest, particularly in a situation where we need this food.

Squashes develop really wide bases, though, and may have more than one larvae, so make sure you’re thoroughly stabbing to kill. They can easily crawl out and chew in elsewhere otherwise.

Foil – Fail

I have tried full-sheet widths of foil in a ring around squashes from the time they pop up. I have interwoven strips around as much of the base of the vines as possible.

The foil at the base in a wide collar akin to brassica collars might be helping, but it’s limited. I have no luck with other materials, either.

Again, I see SVB eggs way up on stems, not only at the base – mama lays on whatever’s exposed, and babies adapt.

Conditionally: Sacrificial Hubbard

Yes, SB-SVB do like Hubbard. I have ringed lots with it, with 20-yard gaps to the nearest other squash, and thrown it in right beside the other cucurbits. Sometimes it’s the only victim or the damage elsewhere is limited, but it’s at best 50-50 and it does nothing to lower the pest loads.

In Big Ag, the Hubbard goes out early and farmers kill the bugs on it to lower pest loads for direct-seeded cash crop squash.

Otherwise, once they’ve killed the Hubbards, SB/SVB have plenty of time to leap over to other cucurbits and kill them, too.

Yellow Traps – Fail

This is where you hang something fairly smooth and happy yellow (cups, frisbees, painted canning lids, yogurt tubs), lightly coat it in something semi-sticky or clogging (kitchen and garden oils, thinned-down glues), and hang it so that itty-bitty munchers get snagged and stuck or coated and suffocate. Wipe, re-coat, repeat.

I have never actually seen hoverflies, fireflies, brown wasps, or striped and fuzzy bees attached, no big butterflies or moths, just the teeny-tiny stuff, so it’s not really hurting. However, I’ve only nabbed juvenile SB on versions stuck down into the dense sections of foliage or laid out in a ring under foliage, and it’s few and far between and mostly a waste of time and resources.

(Again, it can take significant pressure to snag those SB babies – you need a serious level of sticky, and for them to willingly crawl onto it to get stuck, or to fall/jump onto it; they’re not flying or leaping to it on purpose like white-fly.)

Cup Collars – Fail

These guys are effective against some types of pests for other types of crops, just like foil and cardboard collars, but, again, SB lays mostly on leaves and is not restricted to cucurbits – it just likes them – and SVB will lay well up on the mature stem, with the wormy larvae crawling down as far as possible to enter but in no way restricted to entry right at the base of squash.

In the time when the plants are small enough to fit in the cups, their vines aren’t actually vulnerable to borer larvae, still too skinny.

Too, those cups only reach a couple inches up. Any SVB that come by later are going to have nice, exposed stems and leaves protruding to lay on, with their young readily able to slide down and chew in.

Squash are big plants with wide bases and sprawling vines by type – you only contain them in a cup for a little while. Then, there are months of season left for SVB to lay on exposed, viable vines.

So… once again, while effective against some pests, it’s a waste of time and resources for SVB/SB. 

Semi-Helpful: Bury Nodes

There’s the belief that once the adventitious root nodes of longer vines is buried, the adult SVB moth doesn’t know it’s there, and won’t lay her eggs there to burrow in. The idea that she can find a seed-started stem but not a buried node… I don’t know how that even gains traction.

Plus, again, she’ll lay way up on stems. Where they are doesn’t matter.

However, there is a benefit: It creates another feed point for the plant.

If you can kill the larvae in the original stretch(es), active nodes can keep the plant alive long enough to mature any fruits further down the vine.

Tried & True: Row Covers

They work, but there’s some issues that come up, because you have to seal the edges.

SB require really sealing the edges. They’ll crawl under any loose sections. It’s a definite time and resource suck to bury-unbury-rebury every time we need access.

Mesh is my choice control for the consistent SVB problems all over my area, though. They’re not quite as small and tough, so it doesn’t require sealing to the same degree. (I wouldn’t bother if we only had SB.)

Second Hitch: Pollinators can’t get in. That means hand pollinating more than seed stock. It’s also totally devastating for squash bees, so plant some melons for them.

Combatting SB/SVB

It takes some attention and it can be laborious, but we can mitigate SB/SVB infestations. There aren’t many critters that prey on SB/SVB, so it’s all on us. Since the most effective methods require time and in some cases materials, we have to make some preparations so we can act immediately when they show up.

Be Safe out there and be sure to check out The Prepper Journal Store and follow The Prepper Journal on Facebook!

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