I can't tell you how much I hate...

Squash bugs. In the last couple of days, I have seen signs of the little bastards, although no actual bugs. A handful of the leaves have a few eggs (very few, so must have done something right). I am choosing the "tear the leaf up and burn the stupid thing" approach. I hate these bugs, they make me shudder in revulsion. I think this weekend will be spent trying to draw out the adults. Supposedly, you put a board down at night and they will all hide there. Then early, early in the morning, you just raise the board and start stomping. Not sure how well this will work as I have so many plants all in a row, but I might just get some good ol' Sevin and have it handy to spray them down as they scatter for cover. They like to hide so are hard to find. I think there's not a lot of them as I'm not seeing a ton of eggs, but who knows. For your enjoyment, here's a photo description of their life cycle (which I totally swiped from some webpage somewhere). I think I may quit my job and dedicate my life to erradicating squash bugs.

Overview of evil. You cannot really get the full creepiness of these without color. So, I swiped some color photos too for your total enjoyment.

The adult. The exoskeleton makes them extremely difficult to kill. Damn evolution.

The eggs. They are actually surprising pretty. A really nice gold color. They shimmer a little in the light. I am still grossed out by them because I know what's growing in there.

Freshly hatched. Looks like spiders. Ugh.

They have five instars or "growing-up" phases. This is an early one. The adults and these albino nasties are what gross me out the most. I despise these stupid things. What use are they?

As you can see, I am starting to throw up my hands in a little disgust because I know what's coming. The complete destruction of all of my lovely zucchini. According to most of the "official" websites, they aren't supposed to kill or hurt mature plants. Bullshit. Two years ago, I had my zucchini completely destroyed by them. I am now officially on a SQUASH BUG HUNT! I will let you know how the board trick goes this weekend. I might also try an organic coffee thing, but the two years ago, I tried the whole organic thing and it did nothing. I've never tried coffee (with dishsoap they say), but I'm tempted because I would prefer not to poison everything, but if it will get me my zucchini, I'll poison everything within a 10 mile radius. Cuz I'm selfish like that. And screw the environment. I want my ZUCCHINI!

Belinda