It doesn't seem to be too severe (so far), but one thing affecting tomatoes this year is spotted wilt virus, a disease that we can do nothing to treat.

The most common symptom is that leaves on the top portion of the plant will begin to curl along the mid-vein. There might also be some yellowing, with coarse, brown to black spots on the leaves, water soaking on the leaves and petioles, and purpling of the veins on the underside of leaves. You might just see the leaf curling and dark discoloration on the top.

If an infected plant is next to healthy plants, you'll notice it isn't keeping up with the healthy plants.

Thrips, insects barely visible to the naked eye, carry the disease, which also occurs in all other vegetables in the solanaceous (nightshade) family, including peppers, eggplant and potatoes. Once a tomato or other vegetables get the virus, pull it up and throw it away.

Blossom end rot is also causing problems for folks growing tomatoes. The main symptom is a dark, sunken, water-soaked area at the blossom end of the fruit.

This disease is caused by a lack of calcium in the blossom end. By the time the tomato reaches the size of a nickel it has most of the calcium that it will ever have.

Usually, there's enough calcium in the soil, but the plants are not getting enough water to move the calcium up through the plant. If watering is not an issue, try spraying the tomato plant with calcium chloride, which is sold as Stop Rot. Calcium is best taken up by the roots, though, so sprays might not be effective.

Other gardeners report that their little squash shrivel up on the end when they get a few inches long. It is simply a pollination problem.

Bees are needed to pollinate squash and many other vegetables, so if there is little or no bee activity, your veggies won't grow like they should. This is more of a problem with the first few squash that come on the plant. Later in the season, the ratio of male to female flowers is about 5-10 to 1.

Many areas are void of wild honey bees, so in most cases bumblebees do the job. They are most active early in the day. Use insecticides when necessary and only late in the evening when the bees are not active.

The worst nemesis of squash is the vine borer: It seems no matter what you do, the borer eventually gets into the vine and kills the plant.

First symptoms of vine borer infestation appear about mid-summer when a long runner or an entire plant wilts during the late afternoon heat. At closer inspection, there will be sawdust-like frass near the base of the plants. Slit open the stem and you'll find several borers. They reach a length of 1 inch and have a brown head and a cream-colored body.

If you catch them early you can physically remove the pest from the stem, then mound soil over the damaged stem area to encourage new roots.

Spraying several times a week with carbaryl (Sevin), esfenvalerate, or bifenthrin can help, but the best you can hope for is buying a little more time.

Mixing malathion with the soil at planting time seems to also help. Other things you can do to discourage this pest are till your soil in the fall and again in the spring to kill over-wintering pupae, and rotate squash family plants (zucchini, etc.) to a different location the next year.

REACH SID MULLIS, THE DIRECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA EXTENSION SERVICE OFFICE IN RICHMOND COUNTY, AT (706) 821-2349 or smullis@uga.edu.