What to Do When a Gourd Gets Bugs? A Full Guide to Pest Control Methods

The gourd is a climbing vine plant that blooms with white flowers in summer and autumn and is monoecious (bearing both male and female flowers on the same plant). The gourd vine can reach 15 m in length, and the fruits can range from 10 cm to one meter, with the heaviest reaching 1 kg. So what should you do if the gourd gets bugs?

1. What to Do When a Gourd Gets Bugs

If insects have bitten small holes in the gourd, you can spray some insecticide inward through the holes, or put the gourd in the refrigerator or freezer for 24 hours, which can also achieve the effect of killing the insects.

2. The Main Varieties of Gourd

1. Bottle gourd (Hu zi bian pu)

The bottle gourd differs from the gourd (the original variety) in that its ovary is cylindrical; the fruit is uniform in thickness and cylindrical, straight or slightly curved, up to 60-80 cm long, greenish white, with white flesh. It is cultivated all over the country, and widely cultivated in the Yangtze River basin. When young, the fruit is soft and juicy and can be used as a vegetable.

2. Small gourd

The small gourd differs from the gourd (the original variety) in that the plant bears more fruit, and although the fruit's shape resembles a gourd, it is smaller, only about 10 cm long. It is mostly cultivated in our country.

The fruit of the small gourd is used medicinally; after maturing, its outer shell becomes lignified and can be used as a children's toy. The seed oil can be used to make soap.

3. Calabash gourd

The calabash gourd differs from the gourd (the original variety) mainly in that its fruit is oblate, about 30 cm in diameter. It is cultivated in various places.

The fruit of the calabash gourd can be made into water ladles and containers; in ancient and modern times, many ethnic minorities also used it as a musical instrument, one of the “eight tones”; ethnic minorities in the southwest use it to make the hulusheng or hulusi, whose tones are beautiful.

The gourd likes a warm, wind-sheltered environment and needs a lot of space when planted. The seedlings are afraid of freezing. The fresh gourd has tender green skin and white flesh; the fruit is also called a gourd and can be harvested before it matures to be eaten as a vegetable.