Bug Week is Here: Your Crash Course in Garden Villains

For as long as I’ve gardened in Middle Tennessee, I’ve returned from the Fourth of July weekend to find my squash plants drooping dramatically—dead, or almost there. At first, I was mystified. But I googled and flipped through my Rodale’s Organic Gardening textbook to learn the grim truth: the dreaded squash vine borer. My gateway bug to garden combat.

Now, every year around this time, I brace myself. July marks the turning point in the garden season—when pests arrive in full force and things get personal. It's time to fight back.

So this year, I’m sharing all of my combat tactics.

Welcome to Bug Week—a six-day crash course on the bugs that bug us most. From the infamous tomato hornworm to the sneaky harlequin bug, we’ll show you how to spot, smoosh, smother, and outsmart them—organically and effectively.

Each day, I’ll teach you how to identify these pests at every stage—egg, larvae, and adult. I’ll show you what kind of damage they cause and share the most effective ways to prevent or control the destruction, using real examples from Tennessee Kitchen Gardens. And sometimes I’ll just share my stories of defeat because hey, gardening doesn’t always pan out perfectly.

Here’s a preview of what we’ll cover:

🌱 Squash Vine Borer

The silent assassin of your summer squash. We’ll show you how to spot frass (a.k.a. bug poop) and split stems before it’s too late. Plus, prevention techniques that actually work in Tennessee.

🥬 Cabbage Worm

These green loopers hide in plain sight and leave behind lacy leaves and ruined heads of kale, broccoli, and cabbage. We’ll cover how to check for eggs under leaves and make BT your best friend. Bonus: their poop is a dead giveaway.

🍅 Tomato Hornworm

Large, green, and deceptively beautiful—these caterpillars can strip a tomato plant overnight. We’ll talk about parasitic wasps, blacklight hunting, and why chickens love them. This post is part horror story, part revenge fantasy.

🥒 Cucumber Beetle

Don’t let the cute polka dots fool you—these guys transmit bacterial wilt and chew up your cukes. We’ll teach you how to recognize the difference between striped and spotted beetles and when floating row covers are your best defense. Early detection is everything.

🎃 Squash Bug

Another middle-of-summer menace. They suck the sap out of your plants and leave a trail of crispy leaves in their wake. We’ll teach you how to crush their copper-colored eggs and why timing is key to controlling their explosion.

🥦 Harlequin Bug

This brightly colored pest is devastating to collards, kale, and other brassicas. They’re slow, easy to spot, but ridiculously persistent. We’ll share how to handpick them efficiently and how to use trap crops to distract them from your main harvest.

🗓 Follow along on Instagram starting Sunday, July 6, and tell every gardener you know:
The war on bugs has begun.