Thanks for your hints, MD. Yup, I think this is merely insect damage. However, I find those spots too large to be only from aphids. I am guessing it is a combination of aphids, striped beetles and maybe other critters as well. I have Bug B Gon insecticide from EcoSense. I am trying to keep things organic (although I do think that chemicals are no big deal as long as you really want to care for a plant and they don't damage anything you don't mean to, like the neighbour's crop). It says here that it will control all stages of aphids, spider mites and whitefly, spittle bugs, adult and nymph stages of thrips, flea beetles, caterpillars, mealybugs, scale insects and sugar ants. It contains 0.5% pyrethrin and is lebeled as a skin irritant. Here's the deal. I don't like that it is organic AND pretends to take care of all these bugs. If it were true, then nobody would have harmful bugs anymore, so I am suspicious. Somehow, I am thinking it may be damageable to the plants and may also kill beneficials (I am very lucky to have swarms of ladybugs). Do you think the benefits of using it would outweigh the risks? If I indeed have striped beetle damage, this product wouldn't work. Can I do something against those that can be made at home or that is easily purchased? Also, I have Bug B Gon insecticide soap (supposedly controls aphids, earwigs, mealybugs, spider mites, psyllids, pear and rose slugs [sawfly larvae], soft brown scale and whitefly--the soap 47% potassium salts of fatty acids and is lebeled as a skin and eye irritant), but I still don't understand the difference between insecticide and insecticidal soap. Both are used in the same concentration, applied the same way and at the same frequency, so what is the difference? Which one should I use? Should I use one this week and the other next week and alternate? Also, I think right now would be a good time to spray. It is a bit windy, but otherwise, we have nice cloud cover. There is a risk of rain later on and all through the week. Would spraying these products during a cloudy day (daylight but cool and no sunshine) be a problem? I don't want to miss my chance. Please, help as this is about my first bug challenge and I am pretty much a noob.

If the fruit on a squash is decaying at 3-4 inches long, it's probably because the flowers aren't being properly pollinated. I had the same thing with my zucchini earlier in the year. There's two easy fixes for this: 1. Be patient. Although its already August and if I were you, I'd be running out of patience about now. 2. Get a tiny paintbrush or similar instrument (q-tip, maybe a stick with a piece of cloth tied over the end). Learn the difference between male and female flowers (here's a good picture and primer: ttp://offthebroiler.wordpress.com/2007/07/16/how-to-molest-your-zucchinis/ Here's a good primer on the process for pumpkins: http://www.pumpkinnook.com/howto/pollen.htm). Hand pollinate by brushing your paintbrush against the male flowers and then against the female. Given that you describe the leaves as being pale, and given the time of year, you should check for squash vine borers. I would expect they'd assault both yellow and zucchini squash, but maybe your yellow squash just got a heavier dose. My zucchini seem to have survived their bout with SVB (and their bout of surgery to remove SVB), but my acorn squash aren't doing as well and they had the same treatment. At this point, to find squash vine borers, look at the plant stem where it exists the ground, and about a hand-width above that. Is it browned, stringy and unusually tough and dried out? Is it decayed on the bottom or in spots? Is there wet sawdust-like stuff around the joins with leaf stems? Are their obvious holes in the stem or leaf stems and do you see white grubs inside the plant? If you see any of these symptoms, then you probably have squash vine borers. It's very unlikely you'll actually see the grubs. If you think you have SVB, you have some choices: 1. Write it off as a loss and don't plant squash next year, unless it's a resistant variety. 2. Do surgery on your affected plants, immediately. Find every rotted spot and cut it open along the stem. Find and remove the grub. I've heard that injecting the plant stem with Bt, using a hypodermic/diabetes needle, also helps. I did that in addition to surgery and my zucchini are doing well now. My acorn squash have mixed results. Be aware that your plant might die anyway, from the previous SVB damage, from a missed SVB, or the surgery or all three.

I'm going by the spot on the leaf in the first picture just right of center and the leaf on top just left of center in the last picture. You may also have a deficiency or herbicide problem. Has anyone there sprayed roundup lately?

It looks like bacteria spot. If it is bacteria spot, the spots will turn to holes. Not much you can do but get disease resistant varieties. Some of mine get it every year but usually it is in the late summer. I doubt the spray had anything to do with it. The tree looks healthy. When you sprayed for ants you probably also had aphids. The ants like to protect the aphids so they can eat the honey dew that the aphids secrete. With stone fruit the biggest problems are brown rot, worms (oriental tip moth and plum curculio) and scale. The brown rot can be controlled with fungicides. Tip moth and plum curculio can be controlled by insecticides sprayed when you see the fruits bitten by the beetles. Scale can be controlled by a dormant oil spray in the winter, and some add copper to the last dormant oil spray to help control brown rot and bacteria canker. It is easier to have 4 separate trees than a multigraft, but since it was a gift not much you could have done about that. You will have to prune to keep all the four branches about the same size so one does not dominate the others.