SVB are bad in my area. Some years, I lost almost all of my squash, especially the C. maxima varieties. Lost all banana squash one year, and most of my acorns. Starting squash in pots & covering with row cover after transplant proved to be a good solution. I left the covers on until the vines began to blossom, or until they outgrew the cover, at which time the cover was removed. Apparently, the SVB egg laying period was over when the cover was removed, since I had no subsequent infestation. Squash bugs were almost nonexistent as well, and cucumber beetles were in such low numbers that they were no problem. In my area, the use of a row cover to protect the young squash plants virtually guarantees success. But this year, I got behind in my garden chores, and the cover never got installed. I saw an adult SVB in the garden one day, chased it down like a maniac, and killed it. Obviously, it had company... so I buried many of the vines, so they would form extra roots. I kept the ground around the plants well watered, to encourage rooting. Sure enough, SVB had infected the stems. The stems of the Maximas (Queensland Blue & Kabocha) have swollen, and the frass shows that there are multiple worms in each plant. For a few days, there was fairly widespread wilting; but that has diminished. The wilting now only occurs in the heat of the day, and the vines have begun to set fruit. I'll try to post updates as the season progresses. The key to this strategy, though, is to seek out squash varieties that have long vines, and root readily. That is especially true for C. maxima and C. pepo, since they are highly vulnerable. C. moschata (butternuts, cheese squashes, and tromboncino) are more resistant. I grow Tromboncino every year in place of zucchini (chiefly because of zucchini's vulnerability to insects & disease) and with no protection, have lost only a few plants over the years to SVB. They occasionally attack it, as evidenced by minor amounts of frass... but the vine generally seems able to defend itself. After a couple of weeks, there is no further frass, and the vines are healthy. The only time the vines succumbed was when a plant had already been weakened by squash bug attack.

Sevin, carbaryl, is a very broad spectrum pesticide that will kill any insect in contacts and is not something people should be using because of the adverse health affects on people. Squash vine borers can be a problem but the can be discouraged from attacking your plants. Start the season with floating row covers as soon as the plants germinate and by the time you need to remove them for pollination the moth that is the adult and lays the eggs will be gone. Covering the soil around the plants stem with something hard so Ma Moth cannot lay eggs in the soil also helps and I am told that planting an icycle radish next to the squash will also deter Ma. Should Ma get through those defenses Neem oil sprays and pyrethrin based sprays or dusts are better alternatives to Sevin although these are also broad spectrum poisons that need to be used very carfully. Last year if you had put the stem of the plant you rooted out the larva from into the soil it could have rooted again and continued growing. There are nemetodes that are reputed to be effective at helping control the squash vine borer, but they probably are not the Grub Away species.

Hazel, I grow as much of our food as I can, and that means spending tons of time preserving the harvest (via canning, dehydrating, blanching/freezing and root cellar type storage) so we'll have home-grown produce year-round. I buy a mixture of organic/non-organic food from the grocery store. I'd love to buy only organic food but we have a budget to live within and it does not allow for only organic food. I do not know if non-organic foods are less healthy and will leave that debate to the food scientists. What I do know is that I'd rather eat food that was grown in the most natural way possible. For me, eating as much naturally-grown food as possible is a personal choice. I am a 16-year cancer survivor and as soon as I was diagnosed with cancer, I began eating only an organic vegan diet. The vegan part was really hard for me because I grew up in Texas and love meat, especially beef. My family wasn't crazy about a vegan diet, but put up with it (at least when they ate at home) for me. After about 6 months, I began adding meat and dairy back to our diet. We still eat healthier that we used to but not as healthy as we did during those six months. When the National Organic Standards Board was developing the standards to be used by certified organic growers, there was much debate and compromise. Some organic food advocates felt the standards were watered down and weren't completely happy with the standards as written and implemented. Some organic advocates were disappointed and felt the organic standards were too lax and were quite vocal about that. I watched the debate with interest. For me, though, I'd rather eat organically-grown food even if the standards under which it is grown are somewhat less than perfect. One reason I grow as much of our produce as I can is because that is the only way I know exactly what was or wasn't sprayed on it. If the choice is between a strawberry grown in our garden with no chemicals sprayed on it versus a conventionally-raised strawberry that may have been sprayed with various synthetic products from 1 to 3 times a week, guess which one I'd rather be eating? Just because a pesticide, herbicide or fungicide is organic in origin does not necessarily mean it is safer than a pesticide, herbicide or fungicide that is synthetic in origin. There are some organic products I've never used and never will use. I'm planting my 18th spring garden right now (my first was planted a year before we broke ground for the house), and I have used a synthetic pesticide once (last year, to save the garden from huge hordes of grasshoppers) and it almost killed me. I won't say I'll never use a synthetic pesticide again but I hope it will be another 18 years before I feel like that is the only option left to save my garden. I even use organic pesticides sparingly and, in fact, most years I don't use them at all. I use them very selectively and only for the worst of pests. Sometimes I'll spray neem oil, for example, on one specific plant that has a pest issue but won't spray the whole garden or even that whole row. I'd rather hand-pick and use other methods to remove the pests. I never spray Spinosad because it is a broad-spectrum pesticide that can harm some beneficial insects, but I'll use it in a granular product (Slug-Go Plus) that I sprinkle on the ground to kill pill bugs and sow bugs. I also use a granular organic fire any product that contains Spinosad. Other than neem and Spinosad, I sometimes use a product containing Bt 'kurstaki' on brassicas and that's about it. I mostly rely on our population of beneficial insects to help keep the pest levels low, and on hand-picking bugs or using floating row covers to exclude them from crops. I think that produce grown in the most natural way possible tastes better, and we all know that produce fresh from the garden is the best-tasting, healthiest food around. I like being able to harvest in the morning and then use some or all of that harvest in the meals we eat that day. And, on the list of what really matters, the use of synthetic pesticides bothers me the most. I have less of an issue with synthetic fungicides or fertilizers. I think every gardener has the right to grow their plants, whether ornamental or edible, in whatever manner they choose. I just choose to grow mine as naturally as I can. When I first transitioned from conventional gardening to organic gardening in the 1990s, I essentially kept gardening exactly as I always had with the only change being that I was substituting products that were organic in origin for those that were synthetic in origin. After moving here, I began to take steps to go beyond that and that was the beginning of my progression to go sort of beyond merely growing organicallyand focus more on gardening in the most natural and sustainable way. Whether you will be pleased with the winter squash/pumpkins you chose as fall decorations depends on whether you think all autumn pumpkin displays must include big orange pumpkins. I love all the C. moschatas for fall decorations because I like their various shades from buff-colored Seminole to the almost brownish-buff color of Musquee de Provence. For 7 or 8 years before the squash vine borers found us here, I always grew huge numbers of winter squash and pumpkins in all colors---including orange, yellow, white, buff, green and some that were speckled, splotched, striped or warted. It was fun while it lasted and they made great autumn displays, but the SVBs have made it impossible for me to have that wide variety of colors now, so I am content with the colors of the C. moschata group, which mostly are in a range of buff-colored shades. Having become used to what I have now in terms of sizes and colors, I am content with pumpkins that aren't traditional jack-o-lantern types. And, sometimes I want a big orange pumpkin in the fall and plop it down in the middle of the display with my home-grown ones. Dawn

Earlier this summer I started some Round Zucchini seeds, and put them under cover to protect from SVB. Here is what they looked like in the end of July They have been growing huge under the netting, almost completely filling the area, and sprawling like vines. There have been lots of male and female flowers but they have all withered and died before any have opened. I think that was because of the heat. Its been around 100 for weeks now.. but we are getting a break now, and its in the mid-80s now. I decided to remove the covering because the plants have gotten so big. I hope that after a number of week of there being no place to lay eggs available that the SVB moths have left the area, but I know its still too early to think they are done for the year, especially here in Texas where they can be around until late September. This is them today: I think the plants are so large and well established now that they should be able to survive some infestation for a while now, and hopefully produce well. I am really hoping some of the flowers open and set fruit this coming week with the better weather. There are 4 plants. They are sprawling and I can see many roots forming along the main vine and rooting down into the ground. As I mentioned before, I am hoping to let at least 1 of the fruits grow to complete maturity, in order to use it as a fall decoration and ultimately for collecting seeds. These are the last of the seeds I had for this variety, and heirloom variety, so I would like to replenish my seed supply.