Garden pests – Extension Master Gardener Volunteers of Durham County

By Gary Crispell, NC State Extension Master Gardener ^SM volunteer of Durham County (aka the Accidental Cottage Gardener)

July in North Carolina. Is it going to be hot? Do bears…, well you know. Of course, they do and it will be. And rain will be spotty at best and lots of folks will complain. Welcome to summer. Find a cool spot, a cooler beverage, and a good book and enjoy. Or you could come over and help me spread the 20+ cubic yards of chipper chips I inadvertently was graced with last week. (Long story. Bring lemonade or ice cream.) So, the Accidental Cottage Garden is now casually attired in wood chips as is right much of the rest of the yard. 20 yards is a lot of anything.

The ACG looks better now after a wee bit of rain. There are numerous (ok, 12 or 16) different plants in bloom at the moment. Here’s the list: Balloon flower (Platycodon grandiflorus), Zinnia (Zinnia elegans), Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), Black-eyed susans(Rudbeckia hirta), Asiatic lilies, (Lilium x ‘Corsica’), African marigolds (Tagetes erecta), False vervain (Verbena bonariensis), Chinese forget-me-nots (Cynoglossum amabile), cosmos (Cosmos sulphureus), Bee Balm (Monarda fistulosa), and the last of the larkspur (Consulida ajaris).

Close-up of a vibrant flower with red and yellow petals, surrounded by green leaves.

Close-up of a vibrant pink flower with yellow stamens against a blurred background.

Close-up of a white flower with orange center surrounded by green leaves.

A monarch butterfly resting on a pink flower, surrounded by a garden of colorful blooms.

Zinnias are a great summer bloomer that come in all shapes and sizes. They are colorful, easy to grow, and attract pollinators. It is a cheerful addition to a variety of landscape locations (Image credit clockwise: Chris Gladis CC BY NC2.0;Tanaka Juuyoh CC BY 2.0; Krzysztof Golik CC BY 4.0; Kristen Paulus CC BY 2.0))

Now, for those of us who just can’t kick back all summer here’ s all the authorized sweat producing activities for you to pursue. PSA!! Let’s just get this out of the way now and I won’t harangue you with it anymore (this month). SOIL TESTS ARE FREE THROUGH NOVEMBER. Get the stuff (sample box and information sheet with instructions) from the Extension office at 721 Foster St., Durham. The results from NCDOA will tell all you need to know to optimize your soil for whatever you intend to grow. It ain’t hard. Just do it. Last month the blog published a great video on how to take a soil sample.

Lawn Care

Fertilize any warm season grasses (Bermuda, zoysia, St. Augustine) that have been previously neglected. Mow the same by removing no more than 1/3 of the blade length. Mow cool season grasses (fescue, perennial rye, non-banjo bluegrass) no lower than 3”. Treat lawns for grubs after the 15th.

Fertilizing

This month should be the last time you fertilize landscape plants (trees and shrubs) until 2027.

Planting

For the perpetually procrastinating people, planting pumpkins is perfectly permissible provided plenty of preparation precedes planting procedures. One can also plant tomato (plants), broccoli (plants), beans (seeds), brussels sprouts plants) and carrots (seeds). Competitive types can get a jump on the fall garden by planting cruciferous seeds broccoli, cabbage, etc.) in flats to be transplanted to the garden in mid-August. Pot up (move to a larger size pot) or transplant overgrown house plants.

Pruning

Last chance to prune landscape plants. Pruning later will stimulate new growth that may not have time to harden off before winter comes (and it will come). Coniferous plants (seeds are produced in cones) can be pruned lightly now. Bleeder trees (leak a lot of sap when cut) such as maple, elm, birch and dogwood (Acer,Ulmus, Betula and Cornus) can be pruned in July. Blackberry and raspberry fruiting canes can be whacked to the ground, but not until after the final berries have made it into a pie. Many perennials will rebloom if you clip off the spent blooms before they set seed.

Spraying

There are several pancrustacial hexapodial invertebrates of the class Insecta (Bugs to those of us without entomology PhDs.) for whom you might feel enmity and who are out and about this month feasting on your favorite flora. As they are not innocent, no attempt will be made to protect their names. The suspects are bagworms (most of whom are now ensconced in their bags). You will have to pick them off and dispose of them in any manner you see fittin’. Leaf miners (Beware some of them carry little pick axes.), spider mites (I know, technically they are arachnids, not insects—get over it.), aphids (which are ubiquitous), lace bugs, the bane of rose and grape lovers everywhere—Japanese beetles all of which can be treated with a variety of insecticides.

Close-up of a brown, woven insect cocoon hanging from a green shrub branch.

Wondering what this is hanging in your coniferous tree? It’s a bagworm casing and there are a variety of strategies that can be used to identify, monitor, and get rid of them. (NC Cooperative Extension)

There are several organic (not long carbon chain organic, but less-harmful-to-pollinators organic) and as always, read the label and follow the instructions. Watch for tomato blight. It is a fungus. Treat as necessary. Maintain any rose, fruit tree and bunch grape spray programs. Vegetable pests of the month include cucumber beetles, flea beetles on tomatoes and beans and eggplant and the afore-mentioned aphids on everything with suckable plant juice.

OTHER JULY ACTIVITIES IF YOU TEND TO GOOVE ON THE HEAT AND HUMIDITY VIBE:

If you’re feeling especially ambitious you can always build cold frames and greenhouses to over-winter your tender and semi-hardy plants. You can always spread mulch.

Personally, I’m going to take the grandkids to the pool twice a week and hang out in the shade the rest of the time (after I spread all those damn chips). Happy summer, y’all. Enjoy. It’s waaay better here than Arizona or Houston.

Time for a rest! (Image credit: Martha Engelke using Gemini AI)

Additional Reading and Resources

How to grow zinnias and control potential problems.

An integrated plan based on evidence is the best way to control summer pests.

Shortlink: https://wp.me/p2nIr1-7JI

Editor: Martha Engelke

By Wendy Diaz, NC State Extension Master Gardener^SMvolunteer of Durham County

Thinking of growing creeping cucumber? Don’t get yourself in a “pickle” by growing it near your vegetable variety. During the fall of 2024, I observed a patch of green ground cover formed by a delicate creeping vine in an area that previously was covered with only pine needles and cones in my woodland garden. This part of our yard was void of vegetation because I removed forsythia bushes some years ago in an effort to plant mainly natives in my woodland garden, so I was curious about this volunteer plant.

Patch of green creeping cucumber vine (Melothria pendula) spreading on the ground in a woodland garden setting.

Patch of creeping cucumber vine (Melothria pendula) spreading on ground in woodland garden. (Image credit: Wendy Diaz)

Identifying the Creeping Cucumber

Rather than instantly judging it to be a weed that had to be pulled up, I did some research and identified it as Melothria pendula, a native herbaceous perennial common in the southeast.¹ I decided to leave this indigenous volunteer plant in my natural area, and I even tried to train it up the nearby rose arbor.

Green creeping cucumber vine (Melothria pendula) climbing on a white post in a garden.

Creeping cucumber vine trained to climb up rose arbor at the entrance to woodland garden natural area. (Image credit: Wendy Diaz)

Common names of Melothria pendula are creeping cucumber, Guadeloupe cucumber, meloncito, speckled gourd, and my favorite, mouse melon.² Creeping cucumber is a member of the cucumber family (Cucurbitaceae). It is a slender climbing vine that uses coiled tendrils as an appendage from the leaf axis to grab onto other structures or vegetation. It prefers bottomland forests, marshes and moist roadsides. Although it’s a perennial in our zone, winter severity may affect whether it returns from the same vine.

The leaves are alternate, palmately 3-to-5 lobed-shaped and resemble small ivy or grape leaves. The charming tiny (1/4 inch wide) yellow flowers have 5 shallowly notched corolla lobes held on a long pedicel which blooms from summer into fall, with peak flowering in August and September in the Piedmont.

Close-up of creeping cucumber vine (Melothria pendula) with green leaves and a small yellow flower on pine needles in woodland garden.

Close up of creeping cucumber (Melothria pendula) leaves and flower. (Image credit: Wendy Diaz)

The fruit is a mottled green and elliptical-shaped berry that resembles tiny watermelons (1 inch long).

Closeup of young light green creeping cucumber berries (Melothria pendula) nestled among leaves and pine needles in a woodland garden.

Closeup of creeping cucumber young berries and vine. (Image credit: Wendy Diaz)

The vine can grow up to 15 feet long. The light green berries can be eaten raw but may have a laxative effect especially when eaten ripe when black colored.³

Ground cover of creeping cucumber vine (Melothria pendula) featuring green, lobed leaves, light green berries and small yellow flowers on bed of leaves, pine needles and pine cones.

Creeping cucumber vine with grape-shaped leaves, tendrils, yellow flowers and small green berries. (Image credit: Wendy Diaz)

Creeping Cucumber and Pickleworm Pest

In 2025, the creeping cucumber vine reappeared in my garden, though not as vigorous as last year due to the lack of rain in the previous two months. Unfortunately, my new groundcover is a major host of a number of different viruses and other pests (also reservoirs of viruses during the offseason too) that harm the vegetable cucumber variety.⁴

During the end of the cucumber harvest season, pickleworms (larval stage of a moth) appeared in my small vegetable cucumbers for the first time, but I wasn’t upset because I already harvested many pounds of pristine cucumbers.

Close-up of a sliced cucumber with a young pickleworm larva burrowing into it, showing a small entry hole in the cucumber.

Young pickleworm larva (Diaphania nitidalis) (Stoll) burrowing into a young cucumber. (Image credit: Wendy Diaz)

Pickleworms are a tropical species and usually show up in North Carolina in August and September and cannot overwinter in our colder winters (overwintering habitats are Florida and Texas).⁵ Creeping cucumber serves as an important wild host of pickleworms; so, if you are a fan of dill pickles and Greek salad, like I am, you should pull up the creeping cucumber in order to preserve your garden variety of cucumbers.

Close-up of a green cucumber piece with fingers holding it, showing an entry hole and frass from a young pickleworm larva.

Young pickle worm with brown head. (Image credit: Wendy Diaz)

Young larvae are yellowish-white with black spots and brown head. Gardeners usually find the pulpy frass (fecal material) at their entrance holes in the cucumber skin.⁶

Close-up of a cucumber with a hole and frass indicating infestation by pickleworm, held in hand indoors.

Pickleworm entry hole and frass (fecal matter) on cucumber from my vegetable garden on September 5, 2025. (Image credit: Wendy Diaz)

Managing Creeping Cucumber Near Vegetable Gardens

To avoid the pickleworm and preserve my volunteer creeping cucumber ground cover, I think I will try and plant my vegetable cucumber starts in early spring this time. As a precaution, I will burn the old vegetable cucumber vines in the fall and make sure the creeping cucumber is a good distance from my raised vegetable garden for the next growing season. It is good pest management practice to remove creeping cucumber plants in areas adjacent to vegetable cucumber plants.^7,8

If I continue to have a pest problem with my cucumber fruit, I may have to give up on my native creeping cucumber ground cover and climbing vine because I do love a fresh Greek salad and dill pickles.

Notes

1. NC Botanical Gardens on creeping cucumber: https://fsus.ncbg.unc.edu/show-taxon-detail.php?taxonid=3421
2. Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin on creeping cucumber: https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=mepe3
3. NCSU Plant Toolbox reference, with information on edible properties and poison severity: https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/melothria-pendula/
4. University of Florida IFAS Extension on weed hosts of vegetable viruses: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/IN931
5. University of Florida IFAS Extension on pickleworms: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/IN321
6. Virginia Cooperative Extension information on Pickleworm: https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/3104/3104-1559/3104-1559.html
7. Organic management of pickleworm: https://eorganic.org/node/5320
8. Clemson Cooperative Extension information on cucurbit pests, including Pickleworm: https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/cucumber-squash-melon-other-cucurbit-insect-pests/

Resources and Additional Information

On the blog, check out our three-part series on growing cucumbers in the vegetable garden:

https://wp.me/p2nIr1-671

https://wp.me/p2nIr1-6eD

https://wp.me/p2nIr1-6nl

Edited by Susan Sharp, NC State Extension Master Gardener ^SMvolunteer of Durham County

Article Short Link: https://wp.me/p2nIr1-6zv

Extension Master Gardener Volunteers of Durham County

Category: Garden pests

To Do in the Garden: July 2026