We just found our crop infested with squash bugs. This being our first crop we were not familiar with these pests. After doing lots of research on them and seeing what we could do we chose to try something organic and we took the time to comb the plants first and find them. When we did we had a small bowl of water with a small amount of dish soap in it and placed the bug in the bowl (where they drowned). As for the eggs we used tape and pulled them off the leafs that way. However to our surprise those boogers were on both sides of the leaves. So we had to go over it again. Then we watered the plants and what we missed came to the top to dry. And we caught them as well and drowned them. We caught today 33 adults and some 400-500 eggs (no exaggeration). We will be doing this daily for the next couple weeks. Then we will be moving our crop next year to another area and take precautions from the beginning. Making sure to plant things around them that repel the SB. Good luck with these things.

Hello Everyone, You are all right. All your methods work. We all fall into the trap of it doesn't work anymore. OR 24 hrs and they are back. All I can say is you have to look at your situation and be smart. If you live in an apartment, expect roaches. If you live near a restaurant, expect rats. If you live in a house with landscape, expect spiders, ants and mice. Bottom line. MICE: Look around before you open the door, and don't leave your doors open. Make your screen doors snug around the edges. Try to screen off your roof vents or openings with metal screen. Plug up holes with steel wool. Leave traps up year round and eventually they will be gone. If not for good, a long time. An old building was demolished across our street and it took a year to get rid of them as they were looking for a new home. Been there!! ANTS: Its not just you.....what about your neighbor. My neighbor was collecting soda bottles outside his house as I discovered.......which created a SUGAR ANT SUPER COLONY. Guess where they decided to live?....That's right!!! in my garden. Borax and sugar bombs worked great. However, they were only control devices. We had to open up the ground and burst the colony, then spray. We left bombs inside and out, as well as next to all the ant ports. Eventually.......gone. But.....they are never gone, so don't be fooled. We also used bates of three Brand names....only temporary. Borax bombs worked best. ECO SPRAY Seems to do a good job. We also use peppermint and lemon essential oil as a spray to finish coat on our counters and other areas where they might wonder. Just a quick coat before we go to bed and no visitors in the morning. They hate that stuff and so do spiders. The spray mix so far does not damage anything. We use consumable essential oil...in other words we can eat it. If you need help getting some, I can direct you where to get it. We noticed in our new home that we had a different kind of ant. A protein ant as others have stated. So we left some ice cream on the counter all night for two days. Not a single ant. But, when we used a frying pan, and even washed it.....they came to visit again. Soooo............here are some tips. Ask the correct questions first. What are they going after? How big are they? What is our weather like? Where are they located? (Kitchen, Bathroom, Shower). Can I trace the ant trail outside? Do I think the nest is inside? Once you have done that...take it from there. SPIDERS: They really are a pain. Lots of trees? Lots of spiders. Lots of junk? Lots of spiders. And so on. Don't give them a home or opportunity, and you wont have a problem. Lemon pledge, Lemon and peppermint essential oil spray, keeping your house orderly, and window sills clear will help a lot. We use our diffuser with essential oils and they don't seem to appear anymore. I leave essential oils in bottle caps under the couch, closet and hidden corners, and again no appearances. Determine what type of spider you have the most in the same way you did with the ants. Sometimes they are just lost checking out your house and trying on your shoes!! (Joking) Do some reading and try different things. I read once where a couple had a super spider invasion and could not get rid of them. They were in everything and everywhere. When any pest problem gets to this level.............call a professional. ****No matter how you slice it....you share space with all of these creatures because your dwelling is on the ground somehow, and someway. You don't have to kill every spider you see...just keep it from coming in. You get what you put into it!! Bottom line. If you want to get rid of them....you have to go the extra mile. If you go the extra mile as I did when I dug up the ant colonies.......you get the big results. Like everything else in your house............its work. And it has to be done. And remember...the BUGMAN is like your Auto Mechanic.....do you think he will tell you everything!!??? It's up to you!!!!! Good Luck.

How long have they been in the pots? It could be the spray but could also be the difference in roots. Plant roots started in water have to go through a metamorphosis to become adequate for soil. Maybe a combination of both? If you're having issues with gnats then your soil is too wet but a peppers first reaction to being too wet would be yellowing of the leaves, not wilting.

Keith, I am sure the marmorated stink bugs will reach us eventually, but all I see here are the plain brown ones and green ones that we've had around here since as far back as I can remember....which I suppose is the 1960s or 1970s which I was a kid and we had a backyard garden. One thing to remember is that you need to be careful when using any oil or soap based product in our climate in the hot summer months of June, July or August. Oil and soap based products can burn foliage in intense sunlight and heat, so it is always a good idea to use them sparingly and to test them first on one plant and then wait 24 hours to see if foliar burn appears. We cannot use some products heavily here in our hot summers that work fine for folks in climates with less heat and/or less intense sunlight. I learned that one the hard way years ago! I haven't tried the product you mentioned and likely won't. Because I rely on beneficial insects for 95% or more of my pest control, I rarely use any sort of spray, either synthetic or organic in origin, in my garden and I am not going to start now. I just refuse to use anything that will harm the beneficial insects that target the pest insects and about the only pesticides I use any more target a very narrow range of insects. I never use a broad-spectrum pesticide for that reason. Specifically, here's what I use: I use organic Slug-Go Plus (iron phosphate plus spinosad) scattered on top of the raised beds for pill bugs and sow bugs which inhabit our heavily-mulched beds by the thousands. I use an organic, granular fire ant product containing spinosad applied directly to fire ant mounds to control fire ants in the veggie garden. I use an organic bio-insecticide that contains Nosema locuste in April/early May for the early instars of grasshoppers. Otherwise, I rely on beneficial insects, birds, lizards, toads, frogs, etc. to control pests and don't spray my plants with anything. Many insecticides, including those that are organic in origin, are dangerous and I will not use them now even if I used them in the distant or recent past. Like Susan, I'd rather have the wild things like butterflies and moths, and bees and dragonflies, etc. Giving up Bt 'kurstaki' was the hardest thing in the world for me because I hate, hate, hate hand-picking damaging caterpillars, but I stopped using it because I didn't want to hurt the butterflies and moths that we want to have around. I've had an unopened bottle of Bt for so long that it likely isn't even good any more, but I hang on to it as a 'security blanket', I guess, even though I don't use it. Oh, and sometimes I use organic mosquito dunks (their active ingredient is Bt 'israelensis') or their granular equivalent in my lily pond or rain barrels to kill mosquito larvae. Hand-picking works for me even though it is time-consuming in a garden the size of mine (roughly 100' x 100' plus 80 containers and a 10' x 20' potato patch) and for everything else, I rely on Mother Nature to work as intended. Our garden has a healthy ecosystem of beneficial insects and they work very well at controlling pest insects, but there are not many insects that control true bugs like stink bugs, leaf-footed bugs, squash bugs and blister beetles. Even as much as I hate blister beetles, they do eat grasshopper eggs, so I tolerate them. My form of natural gardening with beneficial insects is not for everyone, but it works for me. I have worked hard to introduce/encourage beneficial insects and then stay out of their way and let them do their job. Despite high pest levels this year, I still had great yields, filling up 2 freezers, a root cellar and canning right at 600 jars of produce, so I know it is possible to raise crops without spraying pesticides. I have had to tolerate some pest damage, but since the object (for me and my family) of growing veggies and fruits is to have healthy, organic food raised locally and without the use of chemical pesticides, fungicides and herbicides, I feel like I'm meeting my own goals. I won't say I'd never use any organic product other than the ones I mentioned, but so far I haven't used them in recent years and I'd like to continue down that road. I would like to think that it will be a cold day in hell before I ever spray an insecticide in my garden again. : ) If ever there was a year when I would have broken my own code of 'first, do no harm' and sprayed a pesticide of some sort, I think it likely that it would have been in 2010 when we saw the highest pest levels ever. I didn't do it though (I surely considered it) and I feel really good about that. Pest levels cycle up and down all the time. Sometimes we have so few damaging pests that even my beneficial insects disappear because they have to go elsewhere to find enough to eat in order to survive. That sort of year worries me because I fear the beneficials might not find their way back....and, yet, they always do. If you try the clove oil product, I hope you'll keep us posted on how it works for you because others here on the forum who use pesticides surely would like to know about how it works if you try it. Dawn