What Is A Trap Crop And How Can It Protect Your Squash Garden?

Gardening is one of life's small and simple pleasures. Whether you're a beginner or more experienced, it can be difficult to manage pests, especially around squash plants. Sometimes bugs can appear suddenly and destroy your veggies overnight, and it seems like there is nothing you can do to stop them. But don't despair; there is something you can do to protect these most prized plants, and Food Republic had the opportunity to speak with Steve Corcoran, the CEO of Lawn Love, for one major power play. According to Corcoran, you should try planting trap crops.

"Trap crops are a specific kind of companion planting," he explained, "where you strategically plant a certain kind of plant that will attract pests to it near another plant that you want to do well." The basic idea, he continued, is that you plant these trap crops as "sacrificial," knowing they'll get eaten to save your squashes from decimation. Rather than deterring pests, the way basil does for tomatoes, it actually helps keep the bugs fed (circle of life and all that), and it's an all-natural, all-organic alternative to chemical insecticides.

According to our gardening expert, Steve Corcoran, knowing which pests are attracted to squash helps you know which trap crops will work best, and the three big baddies when it comes to these vegetables are aphids, squash bugs, and squash vine borers. To give aphids and squash bugs something tasty to eat besides your zucchini, Corcoran recommends vibrant nasturtium flowers, which attract aphids especially, like moths to a flame. Okra and nettles can also be planted to entice aphids, insects that look like little ticks, and come in a variety of colors (but mostly black and green).

To combat squash bugs (which leave tell-tale small brownish-red eggs on the underside of plant leaves) and squash vine borers (enlarged maggoty-looking pests the size of caterpillars) blue hubbard squash has been found to be the very best trap crop for winter squash. Blue hubbard is a winter squash itself, and while it's tasty in its own right (so if any survive the bug onslaught, you have yourself a nice alternative to your other squashes), it's also proven incredibly effective at drawing squash bugs and squash vine borers away from your pumpkins and other gourds.

It's also worth mentioning the importance of timing when planting trap crops. You'll want to start them earlier than your desired squash, which you can do inside using old takeout containers, so that when the bugs start to appear, the trap crops are already well-developed and ready to attract them.