SVB adults are excellent flyers. It can't hurt to maintain good hygiene and reduce overwintering, but I don't think it will keep them away. We are so nice to them by planting squash surrounded by dark dirt. So easy for them to see as they are flying around. :)

I mostly stick with C. moschata, which they don't like. The year I experimented with squash, the SVB took out every plant except my old buddy butternut.

It wasn't that long ago when everyone dusted their gardens regularly with Sevin. Some gardeners still do, but a lot of gardeners now try to be bee friendly... which carbaryl most definitely is not. But it sure does kill SVB and squash bugs.

I've pretty much given up trying to grow squash - I grow organic, and SVBs are just too much trouble.

That being said, I have a volunteer that is showing a couple of baby yellow squash (summer type) with green markings - don't know where that came from, as I don't have any seeds like that! We'll see if I can get a couple of squash out of the plant before the SVBs get it.

When I lived up North.. One squash plant would feed the neighborhood all summer... Down here in the South, like you, I get a couple weeks then the dreaded SVB invades. This year I am trying succession planting...we shall see. I'd love to hear what you are trying..and the results!

Kim

I'm trying a few things:

I'm growing in containers away from my garden and right near my door. My first hope is that just by taking them out of the area where the SVBs from last year came out of the ground might reduce some exposure to them. I put them by the door I use a lot just so I check them often for eggs. There's also a lot of birds around the containers, so I'm hoping that they're eating a few.

So far so good. I've probably squashed about 12 eggs so far total (on three plants), but haven't found one for the past four or five days. Having them elevated in containers also makes them easier to inspect.

If (when?) the plants get infected, I plan on bagging up the plant and a lot of the topsoil in the container and throwing it in the garbage. My thinking here is that next year I can be sure that I'm not incubating any of them on my property.

At that point I'm hoping that I'll just have to deal with the ones that drift in from other gardens in my neighborhood.

And the funny thing? I don't even like squash and zucchini all that much!

I am having a bumper crop here.. But I have all of mine in containers on my porch and in those upside down planters from big lots. Mine are huge!! I am so excited!!

Glad to hear it elfs-garden. I've always wondered how they would grow upside down. Please report back after the season!

I've lost one of three to the SVB so far. They aren't super productive fruit wise, but the fact that they're still alive is enough for me right now.

So far I have harvested 5 good sized yellow zucchini. I have 2 large pots of squash bellow this and they are setting fruit now. I am very happy with this and bought 6 more upside down sets from big lots. They are only $1.50 here and I may just go get more on payday ;)

Last year I planted Trombonccino (a moschata) and the SVB left them alone. I was feeling smug until the squash bugs ruined all the fruit. I will be more vigilant this time, The few I harvested were very good.

I am growing in raised beds. About 25 miles south of the Atlanta, Ga airport. Every squash is attacked every year unless I use row covers. These are covered with Tulle. I do have to pollinate them every morning before work but that works fine for me. This picture was taken a few weeks ago. Now they are outgrowing the bed so I will either have to raise the hoops or do some pruning.

My wife had a knee scoped and I found myself in charge of her spring garden. I didnt even know what all she had planted. I spent some time reading up on the squash as we have trouble with the borers. As I understand the creature, it is laid into the ground near the plant, and hatches when it gets to be 90f. It then crawls to the plant. small round holes on the earth may be an indicator of a larvae burrow. The writings I followed pointed out that spraying flowering plants would trap the bees into being poisoned, so my compromise was to spray the ground around the plants and not the plant itself. this seems to have worked so far, as I have no dead bees and no borers to date (fingers crossed). In reading about the spray, it was said that the chemical would bind to the soil well, was an agricultural chemical of a common usage. It is in a gallon I bought at Lowes called Ortho Home Defense, and though I did not buy it for the purpose of gardening, I read that the Bifenthrin and Zeta-Cypermethrin that were in it seemed to be used on crops more than I realized was possible. I was fortunate in that the week that the question of borers came to mind, it was just getting to 90 here, so I first treated the last week of May. I just put out the second of two recommend treatments today. The insect comes out of the ground over a period of a couple of weeks or so and I am hopeful the danger is going by now.

Just reporting back here in late June that no squash borers have been found. Maybe I did ok.

Truckyputt, I am not familiar with that chemical, but if its a systemic poison it will kill the bees even though you put it just on the soil. Please be cautious.

After some study, my application technique of putting the ortho home defense max product directly on the soil around the plant seemed to bee the correct thing to have done. However, according to the wiki text I am posting beelow this paragraph, the chemicals are in widespread use and I suspect the users are not as considered as I was in my kitchen garden. I have yet to see the chemicals listed as systemics. I also understand that the chemical degrade fairly rapidly and have a reasonably short half life, thus the need to reapply occurs.

From the Alabama Co-op Extension Office:

Bifenthrin: This is a synthetic pyrethroid (e.g., Ortho “Bug-B-Gon-Max”, “ Eliminator Ant, Tick, & Flea Killer” by Gro Tech for use in soil pest control for vegetable production) with a broad-spectrum contact action (it is not absorbed into the plant). It can be used in broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, cantaloupe, cucumber, pumpkin, squash, egg plant, lettuce, spinach, peppers, sweet corn, beans and peas to manage aphids, cucumber beetles, squash vine borer, pickleworms, and a number of caterpillar pests. Eliminator Ant, Tick, and Flea Killer granular insecticide has 0.1% Bifenthrin and is sold in retail stores for use in bean, cucurbit, pepper and eggplant production but it apparently is not labeled for tomatoes. Half life is 7 days. Many fire ant control products in retail stores also have Bifenthrin but are not labeled for use in vegetable production because the formulation can harm crops.

From Wikipedia:

On a large scale, bifenthrin is often used against red imported fire ants. It is also effective against aphids, worms, ants, gnats, moths, beetles, earwigs, grasshoppers, mites, midges, spiders, ticks, yellow jackets, maggots, thrips, caterpillars, flies, fleas, and termites. It is mostly used in orchards, nurseries, and homes. In the agricultural sector, it is used in great amounts on certain crops, such as corn. About 70% of all hops and raspberries cultured in the United States are treated with bifenthrin.[1]

Bifenthrin is used by the textile industry to protect woollen products from insect attack. It was introduced as an alternative to permethrin-based agents, due to greater efficacy against keratinophagous insects, better wash-fastness, and lower aquatic toxicity.[6]

Bifenthrin is not at all toxic to plants. Though it does not have a large toxicological risk towards mammals or birds, bifenthrin is able to accumulate in food, so it might be dangerous to mammals or birds in some scenarios.

Cypermethrin is a synthetic pyrethroid used as aninsecticide in large-scale commercial agricultural applications as well as in consumer products for domestic purposes. It behaves as a fast-actingneurotoxin in insects. It is easily degraded on soil and plants but can be effective for weeks when applied to indoor inert surfaces. Exposure to sunlight, water and oxygen will accelerate its decomposition. Cypermethrin is highly toxic to fish, bees and aquatic insects, according to the National Pesticides Telecommunications Network (NPTN). It is found in many household ant and cockroach killers, includingRaid and ant chalk.

Trickyputt, what you say is true about the Squash vine borer moth; they do indeed lay their eggs in the soil, not on leaves or stems.

I am in Alabama also and this year NONE of my squash survived. I planted late in May so temperatures were already warm.

I am wondering rather than a chemical barrier, how about a mechanical one? I'm thinking of putting a landscaping fabric down so the moth won't be able to lay the eggs next to the plants. I will carve out the smallest hole possible to put the transplanted squash through, and even garden staple some scrap fabric pieces right up against the stems, which I will use Dipel on.

I strongly suggest that the use cypermethrin and bifenthrin is not appropriate in a vegetable garden. Both are extremely toxic to non target insects, including the beneficials that live in the soil.

Dave, you are on to something about the mechanical barrier. I'm going to recommend that you research Surround® WP, a caolin clay product that when mixed with water and sprayed on plant surfaces, forms a barrier that can prevent damage by sucking insects, chewers, borers, and egg layers.

It's been used for many years in commercial orchards and vegetable production and has become very popular with home gardeners, too.

I use Surround® WP to prevent: JB attacks, leaf miner egg laying, moth and butterfly eggs, SVB stem damage, grasshoppers, leaf hoppers, squash bug and leaf footed bug damage. I also use it to prevent heat stress and sun scald on my ripening tomatoes and big squash leaves.

It's an organic product, but don't spray it on open flowers or in the garden when bees and other pollinators are flitting around. I've been using it for over five years and would not want to garden without it.

It does make a visible film with a couple of applications, so I don't use it on my ornamentals....just the veggies.

Taking what I have learned in last years garden with the idea of the barrier, I suspect a number of pathogenic fungi are going to be held off by a barrier product as well. It sounds like an artificial bark. This year I am planning better defense for the tomatoes, which suffered a ground based attack that came up the stems, and later it seemed they had a late season attack by something else. The activity in my garden reminds me of the Mobile Strike TV commercial with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I bought some Seminole Pumpkin (it is a squash, not a true pumpkin) seed from Southeast Seed Savers Exchange. They're said to be sweeter than Butternut and SVBs hate them.

BORER HUNTERS PREPARE YOURSELVES! Remember the bugs come out at 80 degrees. Its been warm early already this year, I am betting on an early attack.