I have lived in a suburb of Dallas for 25 years, and gardened every year here. There is a large field behind my neighborhood and a creek. My Yellow Squash plants have always been killed by Squash Vine Borers by the end of June. They start off beautiful, then I see frass and entrance holes at the base of the plants by mid May. I get a couple of modest harvest, then the plants wilt and die as if hit by a blow torch

Carrie sent me this link last year when I mentioned I quit growing squash and cucs.

I lost everything year after year and finally gave up. I decided it was easier and cheaper to just go buy squash at the store.

I think I'll try it again next year.. or maybe this fall.

Here is a link that might be useful: squash vine borer control

Just cover them, like I intend to. Especially yellow squash, which the plants don't get that big. I got some tulle netting, and probably in the next few weeks will cover my plants to prevent the moths from laying eggs on them. The problem I will face is that Hubbard squash plants are HUGE. So I will at some point take off the cover, bury the vine in as many places as possible with dirt, and hopefully the plant will be strong enough to withstand the SVBs until I get a few good squash. I got some cold-pressed neem oil, which I will use also to see if it helps.

You have squash that big in the ground already? How did you get them through the two nights of freeze we had? i lost tomatoes even though they were under clay pots under frost cloth.

Holy cow! I better get a move on and get some seeds in the ground!

I'm way behind also, Lucas,............we better "get with it".

As for squash borers, they'll show up any minute now. You have to look for them because if they see you first they'll hide. Just covering the plants won't work, use insecticidal soap daily. Hand pick any survivors. Watch them constantly. A flock of chickens would keep the borers in check, but chickens really love the squash flowers and the squash, oh and they like to leaves too. Just use the soap, and often.

I attended a vegetable garden seminar recently and Bob Webster advised keeping the lower stems covered with powdered BT. Even though the larva quickly bore into the stems evidently they carry enough of the BT inside with them to ingest it.

Lucas,
I planted these seeds way back in March 4th, indoors in pots, which I brought out on warmer days and brought back inside at night when it was cold. I planted them in the ground on March 16th. When we got the cold snap, I put big glass bowls over them, and I covered them with some tarp. I guess it might have gotten a bit colder where you live.

I am pretty good at recognizing their eggs, so I'll keep an eye out for them.

I have a couple of questions about that. Do you split the stem and get the worm out? I've found that technique kills my Squash plant immediatly. I have some floating row covers that I can use , but how will I get good pollination? Also, someone told me I could get a syrenge and give my pants injections of bacillus theringitis (BT) every 5 or 6 inches, but I'm trying to garden, not practice medicine. I have successfully grown Butternut, the stem is tougher, and Acorn, they never got any bigger than a softball. You have encouraged me to try Hubbard. I am unfamiliar with it, but will give it a try.I will also give the insectisidal soap a try.

Gail, here is my plan, based on my experience last year with Acorn, Pie Pumpkins, and yellow squash. I plan on trying various things this year. Let me list them below:
1. Row covers- I have tulle netting. I will probably cover them until I get a good number of female flowers. Then I will remove the covers and resort to other techniques below. ( or hand pollinate. that is really easy.) I will probably only cover a few of the plants, and for the other plants, use other techniques below, as "experiments".
2. Picking eggs: I grew very familiar with the look of the eggs, so I will pick off as many as possible. They take about 7 days to hatch, so checking for eggs every few days is makes a dent in their population, although its hard to find every single egg. They will lay them not only at the base, but further up the plant too.

3. Neem - Last year I tried a neem product called "hydrophobic extract of Neem" which I later found out was not real neem oil, and had some key ingredients removed.
It was totally ineffective against the SVB. This year I got some pure cold-pressed neem oil from ROT Organics. http://www.neempro.com .
I spoke to the person there, and she said it should work for SVB, so I will probably start spraying as soon as I see eggs. Hope it works!!!

4. Burying vines and heavy mulching. Last year my pie pumpkins did pretty good, despite the SVBs due to this technique, and some occasional BT injections where I would see some frass. I noticed my pumpkin vines would readily send roots down at all leaf nodes. So I covered the vines with dirt. That way I didnt have to check all the vines for eggs. They only place the SVBs would lay eggs were then at the vine tips, or at the leaf stems. Those would be easier to spot and remove, or easier if I missed any, to see damage early on, and inject BT, or remove the damaged leaves. So mostly, my vines outgrew any SVB damage... what did them in eventually was powdery mildew.

5. BT injections - I did this mostly with my yellow squash, whose vines were a lot smaller, and more manageable. I injected regularly, and it kept the SVB pretty much in check, I did lose a couple plants, but others did pretty well.

6. Kill the suckers.... I didnt try the "cutting the vine open" method, but what was less damaging was to get an electrical wire, and poke it into the vine where i would see some frass, I would push it up into the vine, and often impale the worm, and kill it.

Yeah sound like a lot a work, but I like the challenges.. makes my gardening a bit more interesting :)

uh oh... upper 30s tomorrow night! might have to cover them tomorrow again. well maybe the cooler weather might make them think it's still winter, and they will not come out soon.

WOW! I've never tried to grow squash before, but because we need more potassium in our diets, we decided to try it this year. Now I'm regretting it because I had no idea these bugs existed. I'm not all that into organic gardening and don't mind a little sevin dust though. (Only when I have to, not on everything because I love bees!) I hope that works.

OK, I just read the link. I don't like squash that much. I'm ripping them all out. Not worth it. More room for watermelons!

This post was edited by lynnmariep86 on Tue, Apr 9, 13 at 23:09

LOL Lynnmarie!
I'm thinking of maybe starting some seeds later in the season, then planting out much later and mulching the heck out of them. Maybe they'll survive and produce? Or I might be wasting all my time and energy.

Carrie doesn't have this problem at her place which isn't very far from me. Maybe its her raised bed?