What's Eating My Pumpkins?
Pumpkins face the full squash-family lineup all season, and then a second wave of freeloaders once the fruit colors up in fall.
The usual suspects
Squash bugs
The signs: Leaves speckle yellow, then brown and crisp; egg clusters like tiny bronze footballs line the leaf undersides.
What it looks like: Flat gray-brown bugs massing near the crown and under dying leaves.
What to do: Squish eggs on sight, board-trap adults overnight, and remove vines promptly after harvest.
Squash vine borer
The signs: A healthy vine wilts section by section; the stem base shows a hole packed with wet orange-tan frass.
What it looks like: White grub inside the hollow stem; parent is a wasp-like orange and black day-flying moth.
What to do: Foil collars or row cover until bloom; slit infested stems, evict the borer, and mound soil over vine nodes so they re-root.
Cucumber beetles
The signs: Ragged seedling leaves, scarred handles and rinds, and wilt disease spread as they feed.
What it looks like: Quarter-inch yellow beetles, striped or spotted.
What to do: Cover young plants; control early before populations build.
Rodents and squirrels
The signs: Gnawed craters in the rind of ripening fruit, often enlarged night after night.
What it looks like: Tooth marks in pairs, damage low on the fruit for mice and voles, anywhere for squirrels.
What to do: Elevate fruit on a board or flat stone, harvest as soon as rinds harden, and repellent-spray prized specimens.
Aphids
The signs: Sticky curled leaves late in the season and virus-mottled new growth.
What it looks like: Dense soft-bodied colonies on leaf undersides.
What to do: Hose off and let beneficials work; soap spray for heavy loads.
When it's not a pest at all
A white talc-like coating spreading across leaves in late summer is powdery mildew — nearly universal on pumpkins and rarely fatal by that point in the season. Fruit that rots where it touches soil is moisture, not teeth.
Or just point your phone at it
Snap a photo of the leaf, the bug, or the droppings, and Harold — the advisor built into Homestead Paradise — names what he sees, tells you friend or foe, and what he'd do next. Honest when he's unsure, and careful where it counts.
Put Harold's Eyes on it — free 14-day trial