Housesitter makes a troubling discovery while watching over neighbor's garden: 'It was bad'

The last thing you want to be when watching over someone's garden is the bearer of bad news. 

Unfortunately, that was definitely going to be the case for one neighbor, who posted in the r/Gardening subreddit asking for help after spotting eggs in a zucchini plant.

Alongside the explanation, they included a photo of the worrisome plant.

The photo displayed a cluster of small orange eggs attached to a leaf vein. Meanwhile, the plant showed minor damage all around, hinting that some pests were already making an impact.

"That looks like a squash bug egg cluster," a user responded. "If you do not remove them, they will hatch and cause a larger infestation."

That same user also confirmed that the presence of eggs on the plant meant the damage was already done to some degree, as squash bugs were definitely taking over. 

After hearing the same prognosis from a different user, the OP was feeling out of sorts.

"So, they will be out of town for the next 3 weeks," they shared. "I'm not at all a plant expert so not really sure what I should do."

Fortunately, the community had some ideas to combat the pesky pests. 

A poster suggested using duct tape to remove the eggs from the plant. For hatchlings, they advised shoving them into soapy water to kill them.

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The University of Minnesota's Extension school backed these remedies. Boards or newspapers were other recommended tools. The bugs will gather below them overnight and then you can have easy pickings of them in the morning.

The school advised against the use of pesticides to contend with squash bugs. Studies show that pesticides can do far more collateral damage than just taking out their intended targets. 

While turning to them can be tempting as a cure-all for pests on your plants, there are frequently natural remedies to protect your crops without compromising the local ecosystem.

As the community feared, though, the zucchini plant was toast because of the squash bugs.

"It ended up being squash bugs.. killed the entire plant shortly after this post," an update from the OP read. "There were many more I did not see underneath the leaves and it was BAD."

Fortunately, they added that their neighbor wasn't too mad about it.

A user exclaimed: "That's a bummer! Darn squash bugs!"

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