I saw a picture somewhere on the web of someone growing their squash in a bed of thyme! It didn't say that was for the borers, but thyme is pretty fragrant, and I love thyme, so I was thinking of doing the same, just to see.....

You could also grow squash plants at intervals so you have some ready to go in the ground if borers get the first ones. I feel your pain, since I usually get them and have to dig them out of the vines. If you start inside or somehow covered, in a deep cup so you don't disturb the roots when you plant, this might be an option. There is a summer squash called Trombocino that is a type with solid stems and more resistant to SVB like butternuts. A squash with moschata at the end of the latin name, means a solid stem.
Keski

Buy a small greenhouse and plant them in a pot is the best answer. Either let a bunch of ants or other flying bugs in their to pollinate or hand pollinate. I had one called a oneball and the vines inside weren't hollow, but there were markings saying they tried in spots. What ever was in there didn't get very big. Remember one ball is a zuccinni, so pick them while they are young. I had no luck with them last year because it was so hot they woudln't produce any food, plus the rains caused them to be damaged. They all died out just the same, but they made it past what they usually do.

My neighbor used seven dust and it didn't last, it just rained again and she reapplied, plus it's expensive unless you use it sparingly. She put plants out though, maybe you need to start your squash in the off season in a greenhouse, put them out early to avoid the bugs.

Save some seed for a late sowing as well--though it does not seem likely you are going to have a late frost in zone 8, you can sow a second crop to come up AFTER the svb moths have come through and laid eggs.
Second, I had SVB in my winter squash vines last year, but I was still able to get fruit by this method: I slit the vine open and extracted the larvae, and then buried the mangled stem. Of course this is easier with the big fat stems of winter squash, and I had less success with my summer squash.
Finally, find out when the SVB moths are present in your area, and make sure to have row cover over your plants when they are. Other strategies I've read include covering the stems with foil and panty hose so they cannot lay their eggs.
Also, check with your cooperative extension to see what strategies they recommend. If they were their last year, they are there this year, 1-2 inches beneath your soil, so maybe light cultivation would help. Spraying has to be timed to coincide with the emergence of the svb, so I don't think it is worth the risk to bees.
Good luck!

Row covers and hand pollinating. That is the solution that always proves the most effective based on all the previous discussions about this.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: FAQs: What Can I do About SVB

digdirt - that was very informative!

It mentioned that they come early-mid June - given all the unseasonable warmth - would they be coming out sooner does anyone think? I've already seen a lot of cabbage moths flying around....

I also seemed to have some luck with a mix of coffee grounds and wood ashes sprinkled around them, won't know for sure if it were the squash bugs that got them, I picked eggs off, put them in soapy water with a little bleach, I even picked the neighbors garden of them, and she had the seven dust on hers. That's how I know seven dust only works for a few days. She put plants out and got a good bag full out of her plants, but they eventually died off.

Bag full of squash, not squash bugs. Sorry.

We haven't had them (our season is too short to grow most squash/melons) but I have read that planting catmint by squash, is supposed to help. I like the idea of using the thyme, too. I might try that, for the few squash I can grow :)

maybe Tromboncino (Zucchetta rampicante)

lavender - how are you temps this year? I have 5 volunteer cucumbers up in my yard as of now, had about 10 days of 80/near 80 highs.

You may be able to get a lot of squash this year! It'd be easy pickins if you don't have the bugs to go with them! Do you get the cucumber beetles?

Dave is right, and cover + hand pollination is a pain, and jon_dear is right also. I am now at peace that I get zucchini until July 15, when they kick the bucket, but als when the tromboncino start producing. We prefer tromboncino to zucchini anyway.

Something to add about Trombocino -- If you leave some on the plant until fall, they become large winter squash (turn orange inside and tan on the outside) and will store all winter. They make amazing curried pumpkin soup or anything you'd use pumpkin for (they're not quite as sweet as butternut) including roasting the seeds. I still have three of them in storage with no signs of rot. I bought the seeds in the first place because I thought something that is summer squash in July and winter squash in October was an amazing find!

Also, last fall in Italy we saw the big ones hanging in shop windows with little faces drawn on the bulb part. So, quite the arts and crafts opportunity as well.

Good discussion. We've tried most things, short of Sevin (I'd rather not go that way). We planted early, planted again, used BT powder & liquid injected into the stems, & picked eggs (but honestly, after a while there are just too many). We let out big whoops every time we managed to kill a moth! We finally decided that this year we would make a couple of 4x4 beds & make framed covers for them. I'd like to try the Trombocino in the future as well, but I do like to have the mixed summer squash varieties. I get the mix from Pinetree Garden Seeds (all bush type) & it is fun to see what comes up in each hill. This has been a big adjustment for me - moving from the west to the south east. Used to seem like as long as we watered enough, anything grew. Hopefully we'll have more success this year.

When my squash started to wilt last year as a last resort I sprayed neem oil right on top of the plant and it recovered.

Last year I had the same problem they decimated every summer squash I put out and attacked the winter squash too. Near the end of the season I started using and Insecticidal soap on the stems.

It is called Insecticidal Soap by Garden Safe. It has salt and farry acids. I found it at lowe's in the organic section. It doesn't specifically say it qualifies for organic but I don't see why it wouldn't being salts and acids no other chemicals. It also say can be used the day of harvest. I never sprayed it on the fruit and I don't use sprays at all. this is the first one I tried out of desperation. I didn't have trouble after that. I sprayed the stems once a week. Now because it was late in the season I don't know if it was highly effective or if they moths had just stopped laying eggs. I will be using this year as well and will let you know more at the end of the season.

Thanks so much for the ideas, everyone! I will let you know how we do this year.

You can also cover the base of the stems (the most frequently chosen location for the moth to lay eggs) with slitted toilet paper rolls once the stem is long enough to hold one.

I've read that catnip is supposed to repel squash bugs and other vermine as well as attracting beneficial pollinators. Not sure how much water that really holds, but I definitely stuck a plant over in my garden for this year, just in case.

I'm in Marietta, GA. Last year they were bad. I had success extracting them in the summer from the vines once I figured out what they were. Killed the worm inside the stem and put soil over the cut vine. THIS YEAR, I am not going to let them ruin my entire crop NO WAY! I am first going to make sure I get it to root in manyplaces on the vine so if it gets the borer, I can extract it and the vine will still have a good root source down the vine. I have cut tubes of stockings and put them around the base of the starter plants. It is a bit tedious and I am not sure it will work. I decided to SPRAY! This garden costs too much to let it all go down to a bug. I spray Methalion so far. I focus on the base of the plant big time. I have Yellow squash, Sugar Pumpkins, etc. I am going to spray Weelky till I start to get veggies. Then I might just spray the base where they lay their eggs. Last year, seven didn't work for me on the pumpkins in July/Aug. Something just bored right into my pumpkins, Acorn Squash.. probably the pickleworm/melonworm. This year, I am hoping the weekly spray will work. I might find something to wrap my stuff as it grows, but that is going to be difficult since it gets so spread out and thick. I might just spray all summer. Still looking into sprays.

If you can plant squash of the C. moschata family they have solid stems and the SVB can not get inside to kill the plant. For Zucchini I was always told to plant and then in 6 weeks start another bed and rip out the first bed when second bed begins to flower.

In 2011 I used Surround WP - a white powdery spray/coating and had good results -but- later in the season I did resort to AzaMax for the Squash Bugs and Cuke Beetles.

DL

I saw the SVB already two weeks ago so started spraying and looking for eggs. Just found a number of eggs way down on the stem, almost below soil level, last weekend and wiped them off. Also hilled all plants - and then wondered, "If i miss an egg, will it still hatch buried under all that dirt?" Now I am paranoid I just gave that worm a nice place to grow up unseen.
Also, how does a one inch worm hatch from that teeny tiny egg!
At this point I am considering just baring all those stems and trying to keep an eagle eye out for eggs.
Any experience with this?? Suggestions?

Do you think using silver reflective mulch would be useful? I had flea beetles on my vines and I used a little diatomaceous earth dusted on the vines and then put down the silver mulch over the soil. The flea beetles have been gone for 5 days so far. (Cross your fingers for me.) I am new to gardening and someone else told me to do put down the mulch to protect the plants from bugs and it seems to be helping, so I don't know if that will help you, but it seems to be helping me.

Good luck!

For vines that were not too far gone, I had resorted to the surgery that Bob Thomson details in The New Victory Garden. Slitting open the stem with a single-edged razor, extracting and killing the worms, covering the stem with dirt and watering in. Sometimes a zucchini or summer squash would partially recover. I had given up growing some of my favorite winter squash and was about ready to throw in the towel on growing pumpkins. Then I read that Spinosad (organic OMRI approved) can be effective against SVBs. Last year, starting in mid-June, I mixed the recommended concentration of Spinosad and water with Safer's insecticidal soap as a 'sticker'. Pumped up the sprayer so that it would spray a mist and fully cover the stems. SVB damage and population was reduced by a tremendous amount! This year, the same regimen has resulted in no sign of SVBs yet and flourishing squash and pumpkins! Spinosad is a bacterial base insecticide, and is available in garden centers as Monterey Garden Insect Spray or Captain Jack's Deadbug Brew (love the name).

I would love to hear form any commercial organic growers what they do... anyone know any? girding my loins for this year...

I'm doing tulle this year, over butternut. No, c. moschata is not immune to SVBs, just more resistant. I lost a few of those vines last year to SVBs.

My decision to use tulle is that with it (1) I have to hand pollinate (no problem), without it I have to (1) apply insecticide, (2) trap moths, (3) inject BT, and (4) do vine surgery (well, maybe not all of those, but ...) So in my eyes it's pretty obvious what appears easiest.

Now the tulle works nicely for vining squash/cukes, but it isn't wide enough for zukes and the like, which stick up. Either have to patch some yards together or pay an arm and a leg for real garden netting.

BT injections worked great for me last year. I planted 7 yellow squash and 3 zucchini. The extra plants were insurance. I lost two squash and 1 zucchini to vine borers in early June. The rest survived until I and my neighbors were utterly sick of squash. This year, I will use the same method. I've already started with spinosad sprays along the stems. When the rain slows, I will again sprinkle with BT dust and begin liquid BT injections along the stems, 2 inches apart, starting below the soil line. Last year, I did this frequently throughout the summer. We don't have a season here. SVBs are around all summer from May to August.

I think the best thing I did was educate my neighbor about the proper disposal of infected plants. He planted way too many squash and did nothing to discourage borers. Then, he left dead plants lying around for days. That was two seasons ago. Last year, he didn't grow any and I had a stellar year.

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Yellow Crookneck

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Late June

THanks. I started injecting BT - and spinosad! but didn't realize I had to do it every two inches. One question - I am using a marinade injector. Is this needle going to cause more damage than it solves? Don't have access to a medical syringe, unfortunately.
Also - is it too late, do you think, to plant replacements?

I'm going to risk getting raked over the coals on this, as I did on the pest forum. But I'm experimenting with Poke Salat as a battle line on SBV's. The volunteer pumpkins responded so well, it may not be the poke but I'm giving it a shot on my fall planting of squash.

I have 1/2 of it mulched with poke and the other half no mulch.

From my OP on pests:

"I have some volunteer pumpkins along the edge of my woods that are growing great, almost ready.

They are at least 200' from my garden and bug free!

The pumpkins and summer squash in the garden are eat up with SVB's and squash bugs. I have to patrol daily and have preformed surgery several times.

I had poke salat growing around the volunteers. I chopped it down and used it for mulch around them.

Does anyone think that the poke could be helping? Or do you think it is the distance? "

If you want to read it the link is below.

I will report back in a few weeks with results.

Here is a link that might be useful: Poke

I had been checking for moths, eggs and frass daily, but didn't see any. Yesterday one of my Patty Pans dropped dead. I pulled it and found frass that was below surface level. I cut it open and found the worm, destroyed him, and put the plant in the trash.

Last year I had many afflicted plants, and tried to save them by burying the stems, and was fairly successful, but I have since realized that this allowed the varmints to survive and get me this year.

I think I have enough plants to get me through this season even if I lose half of them, so anything that looks afflicted I am going to pull and quarantine, which will hopefullly kill off everything in the area. Next year and hearafter I am going to plant so many squash that I have no worries at all.

Honestly I don't think you can totally eliminate them. I never grew squash before this year yet the moths are still showing up. My neighbors don't garden so who knows were these moths come from.

Not clear that SVBs only attack squash. The name comes from the problem they cause, but the entymology would suggest that they can go after many different kinds of largely hollow vines. So as to where they came from, they've probably always been around, but just not eating squash vines. That is, I don't think squash or cucumbers taste any better to these guys than non-vegetable vines.

Surprisingly little info around on this, but I have to assume that they'll go after anything with a hollow vine.

I'm growing some C. Maxima and C. Pepo this year, and have noticed some SVB damage. My vines are huge, and I have buried some portions of them, but my garden has become such a tangled mess of vines that I cannot bury much of them without trampling the vines. I have noticed some SVB damage in exposed areas. The normally green vines become yellow/tan and get swollen. What I have noticed is that the SVB don't always kill the vine. I have various sections where I can see the SVB exited the vine and left a big hole , but the vines are still alive. Sometimes I think we may cause more damage cutting up the vine looking for the grubs than instead leaving it alone or covering it with dirt.

I never see the eggs even though I look carefully. I just see moths upon occasion. Saw one today, waited until she was committed laying and then squashed her.

I have used the Spinosad injections.

Here is one that recovered. I can't find any frass and the plant is growing.

This plant didn't recover in spite of the injections. It wilts each morning, revives some in the evening. As soon as I harvest the developing zucchini on it I will be pulling the plant. I am sure there is a live borer still in there.

I already pulled the plant next to it and yes, it had a live borer.

Just pulled 1 yellow and 1 zuke but couldn't find a borer. Other stems looking weird - will just inject Bt work?

I think it's true that sometimes you do more damage by trying to open the stem and remove the grub. My experience is that butternut squash can handle SVB on their own and that zucchini are easy to keep alive by watering profusely to get the stem to root. But I have never been able to save a pumpkin or patty pan.

Creek-side,
The advantage of a pumpkin is that you can bury the vine. I suggest next time you grow pumpkin, bury your vines with dirt as much as you can. They will root at many different places along the vine, and those buried sections will not be as susceptible SVBs.

This has probably been covered elsewhere, but I'm wondering about whether Bt stem injections are useful as an SVB damage preventative. Perhaps a stupid question, so bear with me. My understanding of the usual strategy is that you wait until you see the frass, and then squirt Bt into the hole to kill the bugger. But why not just fill the vines with Bt solution? Yes, that's maybe a lot of fluid, but the Bt is cheap. Very diluted. I can make tens of gallons for a few bucks.

Instead of inspecting all the vines carefully every day or two, this way, I figure I'd just pump 'em up say, every week. I've never done Bt injection, as I like row covers, but row covers are hard to do for non-vining cucurbits, like zukes. How many gallons (ounces?) of Bt does it take to fill up a zuke plant? How long does the fluid stay in the stems? Do they leak?