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FOR YOUR HEALTH: Everyday Mental Health Tips

April 10, 2024/0 Comments/in For Your Health/by Website Editor

When we talk about mental health we are talking about “a person’s condition with regard to their psychological and emotional well-being.” Our mental health influences how we think, feel, and behave in daily life. It also affects our ability to handle stress, face and overcome challenges, maintain and build relationships, and recover from difficulties and setbacks.

Being mentally or emotionally healthy means more than being free of depression, anxiety, or other psychiatric illnesses. “Mentally healthy” people often:

Enjoy life and have the ability to laugh and have fun.
Are able to deal with stress and bounce back from adversity.
Feel a sense of meaning and purpose, in both their activities and their relationships.
Are flexible and adaptable to change.
Are able to build and maintain fulfilling relationships.

We all experience disappointment, loss, and change. And while a normal part of life, these emotions and experiences still cause sadness, anxiety, and stress. But just as physically
healthy people are better able to bounce back from illness or injury; people with strong mental health are better able to bounce back from adversity, trauma, and stress. This skill is called resilience. People who are emotionally and mentally resilient have the tools for coping with difficult situations and maintaining a positive outlook. They remain focused, flexible, and productive, in bad times as well as good.

Here are a few everyday mental health tips to help you elevate your mood and become more resilient.

Practice self-care and make yourself a priority.The first step in practicing self-care is to take care of your body. In order to do this it is important to:
– Eat a healthy diet – research has shown that what you eat—and don’t eat—affects the way you think and feel.

– Exercise, which can help decrease depression and anxiety and improve moods.

– Get enough sleep.
Disconnect from electronics and social media.Consider adding an electronics-free time period to your day. Taking time to unplug and disconnect from the constant stream of emails and alerts will allow you to interact with people face to face and will help reduce the many feelings of FOMO that social media can often stir-up.
Engage in activities that provide meaning.Partake in activities that make you feel happy, productive, and challenge your creativity. Whether through drawing, taking an exercise class, going out to dinner with friends or caring for a pet, spending quality time with those who matter to you can make you feel good.
Volunteer.The meaning and purpose derived from helping others or the community can enrich and expand your life—and make you happier. There’s no limit to the individual and group volunteer opportunities you can explore. Schools, places of worship, nonprofits, and charitable organizations of all sorts depend on volunteers for help in any capacity.
Engage in meditation and/or mindfulness.Relaxation exercises can improve your state of mind and outlook on life. In fact, research shows that meditation may help you feel calmer.
Avoid heavy substance use.It is important to keep alcohol use to a minimum and avoid other drugs. Many people use alcohol and other drugs to “self-medicate” but in reality, substance use may get in the way of your ability to function at work or school, maintain a stable home life, handle life’s difficulties, and relate to others.
Get help from a licensed mental health professional when and if you need it. Seeking help is a sign of strength — not a weakness.Just as it requires effort to build and maintain physical health, so it is with mental health.

This list included a few small but impactful ways to improve your mental health every day. It is most important to remember that treatment is effective. People who get appropriate care can recover from mental illness and lead full, productive, and rewarding lives.

– Written by Jeffrey Borenstein, M.D., President & CEO of the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. This blog post also appears on the Gravity Blankets Blog.

REVIEW POTPOURRI: the Gingersnaps & Alfred Tennyson

April 10, 2024/0 Comments/in Review Potpourri/by Peter Cates

Gingersnaps

by Peter Cates

Gingersnaps

A 1956 seven-inch 45 (Kapp K-226X) features the Gingersnaps, four women from Sheboygan, Wisconsin, who had been friends in high school. They perform two novelty bubblegum pop songs, Gingerbread; and Lenny! Lenny! This record was for me an intriguing historic curiosity because, having been born in 1951, the ‘50s have remained an immensely fascinating time warp.

The father of one of the women was friendly with the Chordettes, also from Sheboygan, whose megahit records Mister Sandman; and Lollipop Lollipop each sold over a million copies in 1953-54 and helped these singers get bookings for concerts and recording sessions, although only this record and two or three other discs were released.

Musically speaking, the vocals and arrangements weren’t half bad, the women singing with sincerity, but the results were derivative and sounding too much like their fellow Sheboygans, the Chordettes.

Two other groups with the name Gingersnaps need to be mentioned to avoid confusion. One is an African-American blues group of singers from the Deep South who signed a contract with RCA Victor in 1945 and recorded a few 78s, the second consisting of musicians from Ukraine who started performing as an electronic rock group in New York City in 2019.

Alfred Tennyson

Alfred (Lord) Tennyson (1809-1892) published a book length poem In Memoriam in 1850 as a tribute to a close friend Arthur Henry Hallam who died from a stroke in 1833, at the age of 22. The poem was not only a powerful elegy about the loss of a friend but also a critique on the “modern age” in England during the age of Queen Victoria (1819-1901) when religious faith was increasingly seen as being replaced by hard cold materialism, prosperity and scientific progress. Thus a certain cynicism and despair among more sensitive souls was on the rise.

This cynicism and despair is touched on quite brilliantly and astutely in some verses on the life of a couple who have been married for decades and these verses just might resonate in the world we live in today:

“These two-they dwelt with eye on eye,
Their hearts of old have beat in tune,
Their meetings made December June,
Their every parting was to die.

“Their love has never passed away;
The days she never can forget
Are earnest that he loves her yet,
Whate’er the faithless people say.

[But then this note of marital happiness is pretty much destroyed by the next verse in which there is so often one spouse who loves still and is no longer loved in return, just co-existing, and getting the raw end of the deal. The cold fish husband in the marriage is still living with the loving wife, he still loves her, but he’s just not showing it any longer. ]

“Her life is lone, he sits apart,
He loves her yet, she will not weep,
Tho’ rapt in matters dark and deep
He seems to slight her simple heart.”

Tennyson implied a certain sarcasm about the oafish husband being “rapt in matters dark and deep” and seeming “to slight her simple heart.” This poet conveyed a tough yet needed realism about marriage among our ancestors, the perils of living under the same roof for decades and the suffering so often occurring between husbands and wives having to live under that same roof. And he articulated these thematic concerns with power and eloquence.

SMALL SPACE GARDENING: Growing fruit in containers on your deck or patio

April 10, 2024/0 Comments/in Small Space Gardening/by Melinda Myers

Compact varieties of raspberries and other fruit are well suited to being grown in containers and small spaces.
Photo courtesy of MelindaMyers.com

by Melinda Myers

Have fun and enjoy picking fresh fruit right outside your door thanks to compact varieties you can grow in containers. Just clear some space on your patio, deck, balcony, or front steps that receives at least six hours of sunlight and get busy planting.

Consider starting with strawberries. They provide seasonal interest with their white flowers, red berries, and brilliant fall color. Day-neutral and everbearing strawberries produce fruit throughout the summer and grow well in strawberry pots, containers, and hanging baskets. Place the containers where you can enjoy their beauty and easily harvest and enjoy a few berries on your cereal, as an afternoon snack, or atop your favorite dessert.

Include a few of the relatively new compact berry bushes suited to containers and small spaces. Raspberry Shortcakeâ grows two to three feet tall and wide and is thornless which makes harvesting a breeze. They produce a bumper crop on new plant growth each season.

Baby Cakesâ blackberry is another thornless space-saving berry plant. Like Raspberry Shortcakeâ it grows two to three feet tall and wide and is thornless. The white flowers and tasty fruit that form on old growth make Baby Cakesâ a nice addition to any outdoor space.

Grow compact blueberries in pots adding pretty flowers, edible fruit, and great fall color to your patio, deck, or balcony. Blueberries prefer moist, well-drained acidic soil that many of us do not have in our gardens but can provide these ideal conditions when growing in containers. You only need one plant to have fruit but growing two will more than double the harvest.

Use narrow and columnar dwarf apples as a living screen or vertical accent. The Urban Appleâ series, Spireâ apples, North PoleÔ, and Sentinel varieties are all suited to growing in containers and small spaces. The trees grow about eight to ten feet tall and only several feet wide. The trunk is loaded with short branches and lots of fruiting spurs for easy harvesting. You will need two different varieties of most apples, including these, for cross-pollination to occur and fruit to develop.

Grow your compact berry bushes in pots 12 to 16 inches in diameter and at least ten inches deep. As the plants grow and mature, move them into larger, 20 to 24″ containers. Your columnar apples will appreciate a bigger container that is 20 inches wide and deep.

Use pots with drainage holes and fill them with a quality potting mix. Check soil moisture daily and water thoroughly whenever the top few inches of soil are starting to dry. Reduce ongoing maintenance by incorporating an organic moisture-retaining product like Wild Valley Farms wool pellets (wildvalleyfarms.com) into the potting mix. This sustainable product reduces watering by up to 25% and increases air space for healthier growth.

Supplement the nutrients in Wild Valley Farms wool pellets as needed with a low nitrogen, slow-release fertilizer and eliminate weekly fertilization. Add the slow-release fertilizer soon after planting and again mid-season if needed. Do not fertilize in late summer as that can stimulate late-season growth that can be damaged in winter.

Those gardening in cold climates will need to provide extra winter protection. Insulate the roots by grouping plants together and surrounding them with bales of straw, bags of potting mix, or similar materials. Or move plants to an unheated garage for winter and water whenever the soil is thawed and dry.

Another option is to grow these plants in nursery pots and set them in decorative containers for summer. When winter arrives, move the potted plants out of the decorative containers and sink the nursery pots in a vacant part of the garden. Lift the plants out of the ground in spring and set them back in their decorative containers for the growing season.

As you master these fruit plants, and if space allows, expand your small-scale orchard to include citrus, figs, dwarf cherries, plums, and peaches. You’ll enjoy the flowers, shade and of course the tasty fruit.

Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books, including the recently released Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” instant video and DVD series and the nationally syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and was commissioned by Wild Valley Farms for her expertise to write this article. Myers’ website is www.MelindaMyers.com.

SCORES & OUTDOORS: Need a thermometer? Try the snowy tree cricket

April 10, 2024/0 Comments/in Scores & Outdoors/by Roland D. Hallee

Snowy tree cricket

by Roland D. Hallee

Over the last 50 years or so of my adult life, I have been involved in many activities, including coaching sports at the youth and high school levels, and have done my share of local political participation. So, in exposing myself to critics, I have been called some unflattering names. Some more colorful than others. But, one thing of which I have never been accused is being a nerd.

So, with that, I must make a confession. Although skeptical at first, I have become a follower of the now defunct TV sitcom, The Big Bang Theory. That group of nerds deals solely in science, and very rarely on practicality. My original evaluation of the show was that no one could be that nerdy. So, in one recent rerun episode, Sheldon, the “top” nerd of the group, talked about the Snowy Tree Cricket.

That was a good one. Who made up that name? It sounds contrary to anything about crickets I know. Well, I looked it up, and sure enough, it actually exists.

This is what I found. The snowy tree cricket, Oecanthus fultoni, also known as the thermometer cricket, is a species of tree cricket from North America. It feeds on leaves but also damages fruit. The chirp of this species is often dubbed onto sound tracks of films and television shows to depict a quiet summer’s night, or ridicule from an audience attending a comic’s show when they don’t think the joke was funny. The rate of chirp varies depending on the heat of the environment, allowing a listener to estimate the temperature.

The cricket’s common name of the thermometer cricket is derived from a relationship between the rate of its chirps and the temperature. An estimate of the temperature in Fahrenheit can be made by adding 40 to the number of chirps made in 15 seconds. Before 1960, the name Oecanthus niveus was wrongly applied to this species. Oecanthus fultoni was named in honor of Bentley Ball Fulton (1880 – 1960), an American entomologist who laid the principal groundwork on North American cricket classification.

Of course, if you are really interested in using the snowy tree cricket as a thermometer, you should calibrate your local crickets against a thermometer placed near where they sing. Count their chirps per minute at a variety of temperatures, graph the results, draw a line that fits the points, and use a little algebra to arrive at a handy formula.

The species is about a half inch long and is light green with translucent light green wings. It has black marks on the first and second antennal segments, that are either round or oval shaped, and is about half the length of a segment. The antennae are longer than its body and it has a small head. The eggs are pale yellow and shaped like a kidney. Its nymphs are pale and slender with wings that are not completely developed. The nymphs develop wings slowly. It has one generation per year.

American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne said of the species’ chirps, “If moonlight could be heard, it would sound just like that.”

The species can be found throughout the United States except the southeastern part of the country. In Maine, they are predominantly in York and Cumberland counties. It is located in shrubs, vines, fruit trees, broad-leaved trees, and oaks. The cricket can rarely be found in grass. Adults of the species can be found from mid-July to mid-November. The cricket can sometimes be so high in oak trees that its chirp is the only way to identify it.

Both nymphs and adults feed on leaves and their feeding causes barely any damage. The cricket is known to destroy apples, plums, peaches, and cherries. The female drills a hole into a twig’s cambium in which to lay its egg. It then makes a row of punctures on one side of the hole and seals it with either excrement or chewed plant tissue once the egg is placed. Adults of the species eat holes in ripe fruits which results in the fruit rotting. It normally does not cause any damage in orchards that are consistently sprayed.

There is yet more to know about the song of the snowy tree cricket. Although Sheldon talked about it, the cricket never did make an appearance.

Not quite the whole show

Well, I caved in. At first showing no interest in the solar eclipse that occurred on April 8, a colleague came into the office with some extra pairs of viewing glasses. My curiosity took over.

I sat outside for approximately 25 minutes, and from my vantage point in China, I witnessed what I would classify as a 98.5 percent eclipse. In that 25 minutes, it never came to totality.

Oh well, there’s always 2044.

Roland’s trivia question of the week:

In how many Stanley Cup finals did Boston Bruins’ defenseman Bobby Orr play?

Answer

Two. 1970 and 1972, winning the Stanley Cup both times.

Give Us Your Best Shot! for Thursday, April 11, 2024

April 10, 2024/0 Comments/in Give Us Your Best Shot!/by Website Editor

To submit a photo for this section, please visit our contact page or email us at townline@townline.org!

KEEPING WARM: Joan Chaffee, of Clinton, snapped this sparrow trying to keep warm.

FINDING THE SOFT SPOT: Pat Clark, of Palermo, photographed this red-bellied woodpecker in her yard last summer.

WARMTH OF THE SUN: Lindy Sklover captured this swallowtail butterfly sunnning itself last summer.

FOR YOUR HEALTH: What You Need To Know About Keratoconus and the iLink Procedure

April 3, 2024/0 Comments/in For Your Health/by Website Editor

(NAPSI)—There could be good news if you or someone you care about is ever among the one in 6,000 Americans the National Institutes of Health estimates will be diagnosed with keratoconus (KC).

The Problem

This is a sight-threatening and progressive eye disease that occurs when the cornea thins and weakens over time. It causes the development of a cone-like bulge, which can dramatically and permanently distort vision.

An Answer

There is no cure for keratoconus, but the cornea can be strengthened to slow or halt the progression of the disease with an FDA-approved cross-linking procedure called iLink®. Once diagnosed, there is a lot of information for patients to digest and for eye doctors and their staff to explain in a way that is thorough, educational, and not overwhelming.

Helping Patients Understand the Procedure

With that goal in mind, Glaukos, the company that developed the iLink procedure, launched a 10-part video series called WiseEyes, available on the Glaukos Cornea patient YouTube channel. The format of each short video depicts two young “podcast hosts” talking about everything from keratoconus signs and symptoms and the risk of vision deterioration to what to expect before, during, and after the iLink procedure. Episodes also address insurance coverage, financing options, and financial assistance programs for the procedure. The goal of the WiseEyes video series is to help patients get the information they need so they can feel comfortable and confident in making decisions as they relate to their keratoconus journey and treatment with iLink.

Glaukos is committed to consumer awareness. Last year, the company launched a massive KC awareness initiative through a unique website called www.livingwithkeratoconus.com that offers details about KC signs and symptoms; an online, downloadable five-question quiz; and a link to “Find a Doc” to make an appointment to be screened. The campaign was supported by videos, social media, collateral materials, and media relations in partnership with eye doctors to encourage people – primarily between the ages of 14 and 35 – to be screened for KC. Both campaigns, designed to educate people about KC, are based on the fact the disease is commonly underdiagnosed but can progress rapidly and result in significant vision loss. If left untreated, as many as one in five patients with progressive KC may eventually need a corneal transplant.

More good news is that people are starting to talk about KC and better understand the signs and symptoms that should be discussed with an eye doctor. This has come through Glaukos’ efforts and patients with KC sharing their experiences on social media channels.

“Corneal cross-linking is an effective treatment for stabilizing cornea rigidity to preserve vision and spare patients with KC from possibly having to undergo cornea transplantation,” said Dr. Clark Chang, an optometrist at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. “The WiseEyes campaign was created with diagnosed KC patients in mind to provide a clear understanding of what to expect from the FDA-approved treatment and to allay any fears.”

Learn More

For more facts, visit www.glaukos-iLink.com.

REVIEW POTPOURRI: Sarah Orne Jewett

April 3, 2024/0 Comments/in Review Potpourri/by Peter Cates

Sarah Orne Jewett

by Peter Cates

Sarah Orne Jewett

The October 1904, Atlantic Monthly, out of Boston, Massachusetts, had an article, The Art of Miss Jewett, on South Berwick Maine’s own Sarah Orne Jewett (1849 – 1909) , via which Charles Miner Thompson (1864-1941) stated the following:

“…I always think of her as of one who, hearing New England accused of being a bleak land without beauty, passes confidently over the snow, and by the gray rock, and past the dark fir tree, to a southern bank, and there, brushing away the decayed leaves, triumphantly shows to the faultfinder a spray of the trailing arbutus. And I should like, for my own part, to add this: that the fragrant, retiring, exquisite flower, which I think she would say is the symbol of New England virtue, is the symbol also of her own modest and delightful art.”

Thompson’s statement might be encrusted by a bit too much purple scrub brush prose but he did show a discerning appreciation of a writer for her gifts at endowing the “bleak land…gray rock…[and] decayed leaves ” of our Pine Tree State and conveying its own special beauties and truths in this at times very scary universe.

As with William Faulkner’s hot dusty roads in Mississippi and Willa Cather’s Nebraska wheat fields, Jewett’s Southern Maine was transformed into a microcosm that resonated with so many readers.

In her short story collection The Country of the Pointed Firs, one story in particular, The Flight of Betsey Lane, has an opening paragraph that conveys in its simple narrative just how much Miss Jewett absorbed into her “little piece of dirt” in Southern Maine (She lived in South Berwick most of her life and, as a child, traveled with her father on his rounds as a country doctor.); since it’s too long to quote in its entirety, I offer a few sentences that hopefully will convey the spirit of the author :

“One windy morning in May, three old women sat together near an open window in the shed chamber of Byfleet Poor-house. The wind was from the northwest, but their window faced the southeast, and they were only visited by an occasional waft of fresh air.

“There was a cheerful feeling of activity, and even an air of comfort, about the Byfleet Poor-house. Almost every one was possessed of a most interesting past, though there was less to be said about the future.

“There was a sharp-faced, hard-worked young widow with seven children, who was an exception to the general level of society, because she deplored the change in her fortunes. The older women regarded her with suspicion, and were apt to talk about her in moments like this, when they happened to sit together at their work.”

Faulkner wrote, “A writer needs three things – experience, observation and imagination, any one or two of which can supply the lack of the others.”

Willa Cather, who was a friend, wrote of Sarah Orne Jewett, “She early learned to love her country for what it was. What is quite as important, she saw it as it was. She happened to have the right nature, the right temperament, to see it so- and to understand by intuition the deeper meaning of all she saw.”

Edvard Grieg

An RCA Victor cassette contains Edvard Grieg’s a minor Piano Concerto and two of his solo Lyric Pieces; and the Concerto of Robert Schumann, also in a minor, as performed by Artur Rubinstein, with Alfred Wallenstein conducting a studio pickup orchestra for the Grieg and Carlo Maria Giulini directing the Chicago Symphony in the Schumann.

Rubinstein played with his wondrously expressive musicianship that he brought to a wide range of composers from Mozart and Beethoven to Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff and they can be heard via YouTube. He could at odd moments smother the music with his personalized individuality but in general he conveyed the spirit of each composer in his many recordings.

SMALL SPACE GARDENING: 2024 winning flowers for your garden and containers

April 3, 2024/0 Comments/in Small Space Gardening/by Melinda Myers

Sweetheart Kisses verbena attracts pollinators and brings a vibrant mix of red, rose, pink, and a bit of white to gardens or containers. (photo courtesy of All-America Selections)

by Melinda Myers

Make some room in your garden or containers for the new All-America Selections 2024 National award-winning plants. These winning varieties are tested in trial gardens across the United States and Canada. Volunteer judges rate entries based on their improved performance, flavor, disease resistance, and other unique qualities related to their performance in gardens and containers.

Celosia burning embers was selected for its bronze foliage with dark pink veins that contrasts with its vibrant pink flowers. Like other celosias, this variety is heat, humidity, and drought tolerant. Grow it in a container or garden bed in a sunny location. Grow plenty as you will want to pick a few to add to summer bouquets and dried arrangements.

Siam Gold marigold is another season-long bloomer that thrives in full sun and tolerates heat and drought. The three-to-four-inch double flowers top 18 to 20″ tall plants that do not need staking. Purchase transplants or extend your planting budget by starting these seeds right in the garden.

Interspecific Solarscapeâ XL Pink Jewel impatiens offers a tropical look and feel to full and partly sunny locations. You’ll enjoy flowers all season long as well as this plant’s superior disease resistance, including resistance to downy mildew disease. Grow this in mass in garden beds and borders or in a few containers on your patio, deck, or balcony.

Sure ShotÔ White Petunia can tolerate crazy weather conditions including heat, cold rain, and sunshine. This petunia hybrid grows eight to ten inches tall and works well in containers, hanging baskets, and garden beds. You’ll enjoy the lightly fragrant flowers that help attract bees and other pollinators to your gardens.

EnVivaÔ Pink petchoa is a cultivar of a petunia and calibrachoa hybrid. This variety wowed the judges with its mounded habit that persisted throughout the growing season. The bright pink flowers with yellow throat held up through heat and rain. Grow these in containers, hanging baskets, and garden beds.

Sweetheart Kisses verbena adds a vibrant mix of red, rose, pink, and a bit of white to full and partly sunny spots in your landscape. The airy foliage creates a nice backdrop for the flowers. Use it as an annual groundcover, edger in a flower bed or mixed border, or in a container alone or mixed with other annuals. Then watch for the butterflies and bees stopping by the flowers.

Big EEZE Pink Batik geranium’s unique pink and white mosaic blooms perform as well as other members of the Big EEZE series. The plant produces an abundance of flowers of equal size and coloration. It performed well in full to part sun in containers and garden beds.

Combine these winners with your other favorite flowers to create a stunning landscape and eye-catching containers this growing season.

Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books, including Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” instant video and DVD series and the nationally syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine. Myers’ website is www.MelindaMyers.com.

SCORES & OUTDOORS: The squash (pumpkin) bug; you don’t want this fella in your cucurbits

April 3, 2024/0 Comments/in Scores & Outdoors/by Roland D. Hallee

Squash bug

by Roland D. Hallee

Have you ever heard of a pumpkin bug? Well, neither had I until someone asked about them.

The pumpkin bug, or squash bug, are also called stink bugs, but are not the traditional stink bug. Although some pumpkin bugs are called stink bugs, not all stink bugs are pumpkin bugs. If you ever spot a sizable green stink bug, there’s a good chance that it’s a pumpkin bug. They are similar in appearance to stink bugs because they both have a foul odor when squashed. However, stink bugs are wider and rounder.

The squash bug, Anasa tristis, is common throughout the United States. It primarily attacks squash and pumpkins but can also attack other cucurbits, such as cucumbers.

They are the bane of a gardener. They are difficult to kill and can cause a lot of havoc.

The adult bugs are somewhat flat, large insects, measuring 5/8 inch long and 1/3 inch wide. They are usually dark gray to dark brown. The edges of the abdomens protrude beyond their wings and typically have alternating orangish and brown stripes. They are able to fly, however they often simply walk around on plants.

These bugs overwinter as adults in sheltered places, such as under plant debris, around buildings, or under rocks. When adults emerge in the spring, they fly to growing cucurbit plants to feed and mate. Females lay eggs individually in small clusters of about 20 commonly on the undersides of the leaves, especially between the veins where they form a V. The females usually begin to appear in gardens in early June, and continue to lay eggs through mid-summer.

These bugs have piercing-sucking mouthparts they use to suck the sap out of leaves. This process produces yellow spots that eventually turn brown, and disrupts the flow of water and nutrients, which can cause wilting. Young plants are more susceptible to extensive damage. Larger, more vigorous plants are more tolerant of feeding damage, although they can also be injured or killed if they are severely attacked.

These bugs inject a toxin into the plant and suck the sap right out of it with their sharp mouthparts. This causes yellow spots that eventually turn brown. The leaves will wilt because the damage prevents the flow of nutrients to the leaves, and then they will dry up and turn black.

The most important times to control squash bugs are when the plants are young seedlings and when they are flowering. Early detection is important because adult squash bugs are difficult to kill.

Remove or knock off and kill nymphs and adults by dropping them into a bucket of soapy water. This can be challenging because the bugs hide under leaves and move quickly when disturbed.

Crush the eggs that are attached to the undersides and stems of leaves.

Trap the bugs by laying out boards or pieces of newspaper. The bugs will congregate under the boards at night, and then can be collected and destroyed in the morning.

Check your plants daily. If there are no more than a few vines infected, keep collecting and destroying the bugs and crushing the egg clusters that you find.

Insecticides are not generally needed to control these bugs. They can be used if cucurbits are found wilting early in the season. Carbaryl/Sevin, is most effective if applied when eggs are hatching. Consult your local garden center for controls that are locally approved. When using an insecticide, make sure to read the instructions well.

Planting time is approaching. Make sure your garden is free of these little pests. There is no worse feeling than seeing your plants being destroyed and you have no idea what is causing it. Check under the leaves.