Prickly Cucumber, Oxford Station

[Frederick W. Schueler]

Everyone,

Aleta sends this photo from - 44.93503° N, 75.60944° W - and it's
characteristic of what we've been seeing of Echinocystis lobata this
summer - a single vine going up a Spruce killed by last summer's drought.

Back in the 1990s we formed the hypothesis that Squash Bugs, Anasa
tristis, controlled the Cucumbers by wiping out colonies when they
reached them. We haven't seen any Squash Bugs on our Squash vines in
recent years, so last spring we planted Echinocystis at a few sites
around our houses, in an attempt to establish a population here, and see
if Squash Bugs would find them. We had a couple of vines (subsidized
with water) go up into a Black Locust, and shoot seeds around. This
spring 3 of these seeds germinated, but they were killed or crippled by
accidents, so we're going to have to import some more seeds to see if we
can get a population going.

We've been waypointing Cucumbers we've seen along roads, and most seem
to be individual vines. We'll be stopping to look for Squash Bugs at
Cucumber vines, and wonder what others are seeing? Squash Bugs -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anasa_tristis - cause leaves to wilt, and
a series of colorful instars shelter under the wilted leaves with the
adults.

fred.
============================================

[cvetter]

Lots of prickly cucumber at my place in North Russell. Haven't noticed squash bugs though. Will keep an eye out. Much of where the cucumbers lived has now been covered by Virginia creeper. 

Candice 

Sent from my Galaxy Tab A

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[Frederick W. Schueler]

On 8/15/2026 9:08 AM, Frederick W. Schueler wrote:

> Back in the 1990s we formed the hypothesis that Squash Bugs, Anasa
> tristis, controlled the Cucumbers by wiping out colonies when they
> reached them. We haven't seen any Squash Bugs on our Squash vines in
> recent years, so last spring we planted Echinocystis at a few sites
> around our houses, in an attempt to establish a population here, and see
> if Squash Bugs would find them. We had a couple of vines (subsidized
> with water) go up into a Black Locust, and shoot seeds around. This
> spring 3 of these seeds germinated, but they were killed or crippled by
> accidents

* I just found a few (5-6) of the killer-cute early instar nymphs of
Squash Bugs under two wilted leaves of our Butternut Squash (Cucurbita
moschata). For economic reasons these had to be squashed, but they show
the Squash Bugs are around, and could be going after the Prickly Cucumbers.

fred.
------------------------------------------------------------
---------Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad ------------
Fragile Inheritance Natural History - https://fragileinheritance.ca/
6 St-Lawrence Street Bishops Mills, RR#2 Oxford Station, Ontario K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44.87156° N 75.70095° W
------------------------------------------------------------

[Aleta Karstad]

We just found a few more wilted squash leaves with the culprits hiding on the undersides - including one egg:

[Tana McDaniel]

Here in the Niagara region squash bugs are very common, at least in our squash patch. They over winter readily in the garden soil and regularly contribute to poor squash yields along with other native squash consumers such as  squash borer moths.

While our garden squash tends to do poorly against this onslaught, the native prickly cucumbers seem to be doing just fine in this area. Perhaps all the domestic squash provides a more attractive food source

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