What's eating my kabocha squash?

Kabocha squash, like all Cucurbita maxima types, is most threatened by squash vine borers and cucumber beetles. Vine borers can kill plants quickly by tunneling stems. Squash bugs aggregate on leaves and inject toxic saliva. Deer and groundhogs will eat young vines and developing fruit if gardens are not fenced.

Sudden wilting of entire vines; sawdust-like frass at entry holes near the stem base; larvae hollow out the main stem Wrap stem bases in aluminum foil as barrier; inject Bt into entry holes; row covers until flowering; succession-plant to outrun peak moth flight

Chewed leaves, flowers, and rinds; transmits bacterial wilt disease which kills vines rapidly Yellow sticky traps; row covers; kaolin clay on foliage; pyrethrin or spinosad spray; remove infected wilting plants promptly

Bronze, stippled, or wilting leaves; egg clusters (bronze, organized rows) on leaf undersides; toxin injection causes rapid vine collapse Hand-pick adults and scrape off egg masses daily; trap adults under cardboard overnight then destroy; neem oil on nymphs

Entire young vines browsed to the ground; developing fruit gnawed or removed overnight 8 ft deer fence or motion-activated deterrents; hardware cloth or live traps for groundhogs; plant in raised garden with fencing