Can you prune pumpkin leaves?

[Tarielena]

Is it okay to cut a few pumpkin leaves off the vines without damaging the plant? I have pumpkin vines going up a trellis and there is only about a foot and a half of space between the trellis and the wall of our house. There are a few big pumpkin leaves growing in that space now that make it difficult for me to get back there. Also I frequently find little groups of earwigs hanging out in the folds of the leaves so I REALLY don't want to squeeze my way back there.

There are loads and loads of leaves on the outward side of the trellis, so I would think that it wouldn't miss a few, but I didn't know if cutting the vines causes issues.

[limette]

You can but there is the potential to open the plant up to disease.

[Tarielena]

Is it a high chance? And does the fact that they are up in the air off the ground make it better or worse?

[SuburbanHippie]

I'm not sure, but I did it two weeks ago. My (unplanned) pumpkin plants have grown over several of my tomato plants and they're both fighting for sun. I cut some of the leaves off that were at the top of the tomato cage to give the tomatoes the advantage.