I've tried almost everything ever mentioned about SVB deterrence. What I haven't tried yet is "Surround" which is a clay that you mix up with water & spray. Not cheap, but supposedly effective.

I have tried a half joint compound half latex paint mix- worked ok, but since it doesn't flex much, it made shallow splits in the stems as the plant grew... I also shredded and soaked egg cartons and glopped blobs at the base of the stems- not bad, but you have to keep checking to make sure that you have good contact/coverage.

The best & most effective method for me here in CT is to use row covers until the plants start blooming, & then to spray BT once a week. And to plant moschatas as much as possible...! And search & destroy eggs...they're fairly easy to spot once you know what they look like.

For my pumpkins, I till in strips, lay plastic in just the strips, and let the pumpkin vines run into the weeds-they send down lateral roots easier in areas that have some sort of thick cover. Maybe it's because the grass traps the dew & keeps the soil soft, I dunno, but when I have clear, hard soil it's tough for the lateral roots to dig in. The main stems will get trashed by SVB, but the pumpkins make it, thanks to the extra roots.

It is not the "eggs" in the soil, but the "pupa". SVB are moth larva- the moth flies in, lays one egg at a time, and when the egg hatches a tiny worm bores into the stem and eats the inside of the stem. If it makes it to maturity, it blows a hole out the side of the stem & burrows into the soil where it metamorphs into the hard shelled pupa. It overwinters in the pupa stage, and wriggles to the top to break out of the shell & fly away as a moth in late spring. I have dug around where the vines have been trashed at season's end- never found one pupa.

Beneficial nematodes are good for killing the pupas in the soil, but they need to be bought & shipped & applied fairly early. Or in the fall. Not cheap, but they also will kill grubs & other underground pests. I discovered quite by accident that they are super for the hated & feared Red Lily Beetle. Knocked those Bad Boys right out of my lily patch.

Some people have had decent success with injecting either BT or BNs into the vine, but that has never worked well for me. I'll perform surgery if need be, and grab the worm with tweezers, but I prefer to try to prevent the worm from boring in in the first place.

Google "melittia curcubitae" that's the latin name for the SVB. Ya get better info w/latin names~

I read one place that planting onions around the base is a deterrent.

Possibly. I have a tough time buying smell based companion planting, myself.

I can also testify to the effectiveness of row covers. That is what I did last year. As soon as I planted the seeds, I covered the entire area with row cover, and left it on until the plants began to flower. I had planned to pollinate by hand but was just too pushed with other things to get to it. When I began to see blooms I removed the covers. The plants did eventually succomb to the borers, but I got alot more squash than I have harvested in years. ALOT more. Actually, fruit production was starting to slow down about the time the plants began to wilt.

This is the technique I will use on my summer squash again this year. I also plan to put in winter squash for the first time. I am only going to plant cucurbita moschatas as the SVB are said to avoid them.

Moschata is the way to go. Replace zucchini with the Tromboncino. Replace pumpkins with Moschata pumpkins or butternut squash. I tried Seminole, an old Florida variety used by the Indians. It is extremely vigorous and roots very quickly at nodes on the vines. It produces a lot of small squash which taste great in soup or baked and store for ever. I live in Maryland, where borers are a major problem, but have had no trouble once I went to Moschata. With regular zuccini I find a sucession crop works pretty well, but non Moschata winter squash have always been a disaster.

austransplant? I hear you about Md,it's got to be like Va very bad infestations.Do you growing the trombocino still have a problem with the squash bugs? because here in Va we have a problem with the svb and the squash bugs

As long as you plant a squash that draws the SVB, you'll have them. They seem to always find a way. I've switched to moschata totally. No zucchini or yellow squash for me but I'll enjoy butternut and long island cheese. For pumpkins I'll plant Musquee De Provence. Maybe after a few years I'll try planting pepo again.

Last year I tried out a variety of moschata squash. The first one to get nailed by SVB was the "wrinkled" butternut or violin butternut (italian variety). I was not please. I tried Musquee de Provence, and yes, it got SVB and then succumbed to powdery mildew (I spray squash for this, so I never usually have a problem but could not keep it off Musquee). The best of the moschatas for me have been any japanese variety, Waltham butternuts, any of the "neck" pumpkins, and the seminole did great for me but only produced a few VERY LARGE per vine. I kept thinking that the seeds in the packet must have been incorrect, but two years in a row, two big 30lb squash per vine, hanging on the fence. We had to put stuff under them to support them! They were the talk of the neighborhood!

A good substitute for zukes is Tatume. Even though it's a pepo, the vines are solid & very tough. Great on the grill, very zuke-like flavor. Good yields too. Since it's a rambling vine type squash, it does need a bit of room.