Lazy gardener vs squash bugs

I am a lazy gardener. I want to do as little work as possible and still get a decent amount of food.

I have had small raised beds before, and no real problems from bugs — just some arguments with a groundhog that I finally won with fencing.

This year, however, in a new place, I’ve got a larger garden, not boxed in, and I’ve planted LOTS of vine crops. I have huge zucchini plants, lots of acorn squash, some cantaloupe, and some pumpkins.

And they are absolutely covered with squash bugs. Way too many to go pick and kill by hand (besides, that would be yucky).

I guess I should have done something when I noticed egg clusters on the undersides of leaves.

Perhaps kept the garden better weeded.

Maybe spaced the plants better.

Maybe cut off and destroyed affected leaves.

I won’t use an insecticide, which is non-organic, can hurt beneficial insects, and can leave residues on the food and in the soil and perhaps eventually in our water supply.

After a little surfing, it looks like my best bets are to a) leave a small portion of one crop after harvest, destroying the rest; the bugs will congregate in the remaining portion where I can try to kill them somehow — and / or b) till everything in, to bury the adults and destroy overwintering sites.

Meanwhile I harvested the acorn squash, which included one nice full one and maybe eight or nine smallish ones and a few that were ruined. I’ll bake, scoop, and freeze it later this week.

And next year either plant no vine crops or do lots of work — row covers, checking the leaves regularly, regular weeding, planting companion plants that might repel the bugs…