Squish the Squash Bugs

A few weeks ago I noticed some tiny red eggs on my pumpkin plant leaves. Hmm, wonder what these are? Being the inquisitive person I am, I decided to just leave them and see. BAD idea. There were lots more eggs than I could see and I could see lots. So a couple of day ago I was checking on my "finally" pumpkin when I saw these little white fellows. What on earth are those? They look like something out of the "Mrs. Spider" book. I had never seen such insects, ever. There were tons of them in all sizes. Well, I left them and did finally research what they are. They are squash bug babies. They have piercing mouthparts, so they suck the juice out of the plant. As if that isn't bad enough, they also inject some sort of toxin into the plant that gums up the "water works". The leaves and stems die due to lack of water. Well, I have some very yellow leaves and some dead leaves. What to do?! Back to the internet. I couldn't live without the internet. (I could but...) I found a post that said to just mix up some soapy water and spray them with it. It will cause them to suffocate. That sounded better than some chemical pesticide. I want to be as natural as possible. So I tried it. Well, it worked like a dream. Now the ants are having a picnic on the dead carcasses of the squash bugs. The first picture is the babies hatching The second is of the buggers on my pumpkin. I have waited all summer for a pumpkin. The third picture is of the adult. I stepped on three of these and it made me so happy. No more eggs from them. Ha