Although you will need to experiment to see what works best in your climate, in your soil, generally Radishes and Marigold will repel Squash Bugs, while Squash Vine Borers do not like to be near cloves, onion and garlic. Similarly, planting strong smelling herbs like Valerian, Angelica, Cilantro, Lemongrass and Sage may deter adult moths from laying eggs that hatch into Melon and Pickle Worms.

Suggested Reading:

Control Squash Pests
My Squash Have Pale Green Patches and Are Wilting
Photo of Squash Bugs and Hatching Squash Bug Eggs
Photo of a Pickle Worm
Melon and Pickle Worms - Description, Biology and Control

Thanks so much for your question. Your crops are most likely infested with Squash Bugs. One tell-tale sign of Squash Bugs is bright orange eggs laid on the underside of the crop's leaves. if you see any bugs crawling near the eggs and crush them, they will give off a strong smell.

So, how do you control Squash Bugs?
Suggested Reading:

How to Identify and Control Squash Bugs

Photo of Squash Bugs and Eggs

How to Grow Winter Squash

Some flying insects such as wasps, bees and yellowjackets are beneficial to the garden as pollinators and predators of caterpillars and house, manure and fruit flies, however if their sheer numbers threaten your outdoor enjoyment or work in the garden, or if their nests are located near entryways to the house, then a trap is appropriate to decrease their population.

First, cut the top of an empty 2 liter soda bottle at its "shoulder." Next, invert this "funnel" into the lower portion of the bottle and staple it to the sides in several places. Punch a small hole in opposite sides of the bottle's open end and "funnel" and insert a loop of twine, wire or a coat hanger. Fill the bottle 1/3 full with a sugar and protein mixture such as a little milk over some peanut butter or any ripe fruit. The insects will be attracted to the mixture, fly in and be unable to find their way out and will drown. I like to add a few drops of hot sauce or pepper to the elixir to make sure they get an upset stomach(foregut) in the meantime. Finally, hang in a tree a few feet away from where the insect activity is heaviest. Hanging multiple traps will increase your chances of quick success. Make sure to renew the attractant mixture every few days or after any heavy rains, dumping the spent insects onto the compost pile.

Like many creatures in the natural world, Rats have comparative physical abilities that make human athletes look totally undeveloped. These abilities must be taken into account by the homeowner or Pest Control professional to effectively get rid of rats and to keep them out of homes, schools and workplaces. For instance:

Rat Squeeze: Rats can wriggle through openings as small as 1/2" (1.3 cm) square.

Rat Tightwire Walking: Rats can saunter along horizontal wires easily while Roof Rats can even climb vertical wires.

Tunnel Rats: Rats can crawl up the inside of vertical pipes as small as 1.5" or 3.8 cm, in diameter.

Rats as Outdoor Plumbers: Rats can shimmy up the outside of vertical pipes up to 3" or 7.6 cm, in diameter.

Rats as Plumbers and Electricians: If plumbing pipes or electrical conduit are within 3" or 7.6 cm of a wall, rats can crawl up them, probably even wearing a tiny tool belt.

Rats and Basketball or Volleyball: The pesky rodents can jump 36" or 0.9 m from a flat surface.

Rat Yoginis: From a flat surface, rats can stretch to reach about 13" or 33 cm.

Rat Swimmers and Divers: Even though they may be the last ones off a sinking ship, rats are able to dive and swim underwater for as long as 30 seconds. In open water, they can swim as far as 1/2 mile or 0.8 km. They can use these remarkable aquatic abilities to swim upward through waste pipes and into toilets.

Rats at the Dentist: Equipped with front teeth that continue to grow throughout their lives, rats are gnawing machines, attacking a vast array of materials from wood, lead pipes and cinder block to aluminum, glass, and adobe bricks.

More on Rats
How to Identify Rat Damage and to Get Rid of Them
How to Keep a Rat as a Pet
How to Keep Rats Out of Compost

Optimal weed management should lessen competition between weeds and the desired crop without adversely impacting pest controls or soil fertility. Physical methods of weed management include mulches of organic material such as green waste, sawdust or newspaper or cultivation by hand or machine to slice, cut and turn the weed from the soil. However, some soil conditions, terrain or limitations imposed by the type or size of the crop prohibit efficient use of either mulch or cultivation.

Enter Geese who have been used for hundreds of years to weed an enormous variety of crops from strawberries and blueberries to potatoes, nut orchards and grape vineyards. Some have even been trained to clear water hyacinths from drainage ditches.

Geese are in fact, model workers who toil seven days a week, rain or shine, do not compact the soil as machinery does, spread nitrogen-rich manure throughout their wanderings and crane their supple necks to reach weeds nestled in the tightest of plantings. Although geese are vegetarians, companion ducks will eagerly devour wayward slugs and snails.

Last but not least, the goose can be fattened-up with corn at the end of the season to go to the meat market or the family's holiday table. Check your local farmer's markets to purchase goslings (adult geese older than about one year of age tend to be precoccupied with mating and fighting, instead of weeding), or there are several on-line sources.

MORE READING:

Profile of Geese as Weeders

How to Use Weeder Geese

Weeder Geese - An Important Tool in the Weed Control Arsenal

There are seventeen known species of Bats in the United Kingdom and twelve of these are either considered Endangered or Vulnerable by government authorities. Unauthorized removal or disturbing of the animals or their habitat can result in fines of up to £5,000 per bat or occurrence.

More on Bats:

Do not Disturb Sleeping Bats
A Plague of Bats Filled the Night Air
Fast Facts About Bats

Cotton industry sources estimate that by the end of 2010, that 50% of the world's cotton crops will be grown from Genetically Modified (GM) seeds. Farmers in Pakistan, one of the world's leading exporters of raw cotton and its finished products, are now using cotton seeds that are bio-engineered to resist damage from Bollworms. This #1 cotton pest is a caterpillar, or larval stage that eats or sucks in, on and around the cotton fruit or boll, either causing it to fall off, or rot.

Although to this author, cotton scientists seem to be divided on the effectiveness of seeding with GM seeds, farmers in Pakistan who have used the GM seeds report a 30% increase in crop yields. Specifically, the seeds are bio-engineered to contain Bacillus thuringiensis,(a strain of bacteria that repels Cotton Bollworms).

Unfortuately, this wave of new found cash has brought with it those out to make a quick rupee, just like those pirating Saira Arshad or Shehzad Roy music. Pakistani government officials warn that pirated or fake GM cotton seeds may be non-local, unsuited to the soil or climate and in addition, might introduce viruses or disease that could devastate the cotton crop in Pakistan.

MORE READING:

Profile of Pakistan
Quick Facts About Growing Organic Cotton
Controlling the Cotton Bollworm Using Integrated Pest Management Techniques

For baits to be effective as ant control measures. ants must find the bait, eat it and take it back to the nest to the queen. Do not use insecticide sprays if you want to bait for ant control as the foraging ants will be killed before they have a chance to return to the nest. Simply put, the ant colony can be eliminated in a few weeks if the bait is spread throughout it and no toxic sprays will be needed!

In addition, some ant species will ignore baits so as is always the case in pest control, fitting the control measures to the pest is vital. In general, ants that eat a varied diet will be less affected by baits because the bait will comprise a smaller proportion of their food.

Sugar-loving ants, such as house ants, Argentine and honey ants are the easiest to control by using baits. Lay a trap for sweet-feeding ants by applying a ribbon of mint or apple jelly to masking tape (easy to apply, easy to remove later), in the areas where you have seen ants, especially around water sources and window ledges. A plastic squeeze bottle with a pointed tip makes a convenient applicator. Check the "masked areas" in two to three hours for ants. If more than 10 are present. apply an ant bait to the jelly that has Boric Acid or Hyramethylnon as its Active Ingredient. These are slow-acting stomach poisons that the foraging ants will take back to the nest, nourishment that will eventually find its way to the Queen, killing her. No Queen, No Colony!

Are Big-headed ants, little black ants and pavement ants beating Fido to grease, milk or butter spatters on the kitchen floor, stove and counters? Or swarming over any fruit juices that ooze from overripe fruit in the fruit bowl? Predictably, these Protein and Grease-loving ants respond best to protein and grease baits.

Easy-to-make Bait for Protein and Grease-Loving Ants:

Mix together 2 ounces or 4 Tablespoons of Peanut Butter with
3 ounces or 6 Tablespoons of Honey and add
3/4 teaspoon of Boric Acid

ENSURE THAT CHILDREN AND PETS DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO THE BAIT BY PLACING AN ANT CAFE OVER IT, IF NEEDED.

As Carpenter Ants eat a variety of foods, they can be as much of a challenge to bait as they are to eliminate by any method. A wide range of least-toxic pest control tools have been shown effective against carpenter ants from boric acid-based granular baits and rods to borate treated lumber and baits laced with bacteria that inhibit nerve to muscle communication, causing paralysis of the ant and eventual death. Make sure that regardless of the method employed to control carpenter ant colonies, that bait is available in their prime feeding times of late afternoon and the early evening hours.

MORE READING:

Identification and Least-toxic Control of Carpenter Ants

Least-toxic Control of Ants Video

Winged Ants or Termites? How to tell the difference.

Fruit growers in Australia are celebrating the newly eased quarantine protocols which allow more mangoes and a variety of citrus from oranges and limes to grapefruit amd lemons, to reach Chinese consumers unblemished. In the past, officials in China required that Australian citrus be subjected to cold treatments and/or cutting to ensure that pests were not being imported along with the fruit. Australia's fruit exports to China were valued at over $1Million in 2008.

Thrips are tiny insects but in groups can devastate a huge varierty of plants from onions, carrots, cucumbers, houseplants and greenhouse crops to roses. They cause a characteristic silvery mottling of leaves and distort flower buds. Quick out of the chute, they can reproduce in as little as a month, but they can foiled literally by using or reusing aluminum foil as mulch around their favorite plants. Making a foil barrier a foot (30 cm) wide(anchor with rocks or soil) will disorient thrips who are looking for the duller earth colors, preventing them from laying more eggs, or the shiny mulch may also serve to prevent soil-borne pupae from emerging to morph into egg-laying, plant-eating adults.