I have had an epic battle with them also, and must check my plants daily. If you will find their eggs and squish them, it will go a long way to keep the numbers down to a value that you can deal with. In my honest opinion, they will find your plants no matter where you put them. Here's a link to one of my threads that has the egg pictures, as well as an adult bug.

Here is a link that might be useful: pests in my garden this year

OH MY GOODNESS!!! You just can't seem to catch a break.

So, do you think all of those tiny crawly things are little squash bugs waiting to grow up and eat small children? I haven't found any eggs yet, but I did catch two hooked up at the tail end doing what I assumed was their little mating ritual.

Yeah...it's been quite a year for me concerning the bugs. But, I worked hard to create my garden, and I will be victorious over any insect. You have eggs....believe me, they are there. You just have to find them. My squash bugs are getting smarter every day.....yesterday, I found 2 clusters of eggs on the adjacent tomato plant leaves. Isn't that ridiculous? And yeah....the little things you saw are probably babies - they're very tiny, and are difficult to see. These bugs are really starting to get on my last nerve. I'm almost ready to take a flamethrower to them. LOL

EG

Engineer and Ribbit,

I feel for you both. I've been real lucky this year, knock wood, but I've been very vigilant in checking for them every single day. Also, I sprayed a prophylactic dose of Sevin early on. BUT, get this...

I was talking to my neighbor on Sunday at the back fence. She keeps a few things stuck in the dirt in her back yard and never takes care of them so it all goes to grass and weeds. Anyway, when I looked down, I saw them. Squash bugs on her poor little cucumber vine. I told her what they were. "Oh don't worry about them. I don't have time to deal with them."

"What?" said I. "I don't have these critters in my garden, and if you don't do anything, they'll come crawling into MY garden before long." She shrugged her shoulders!!! So I told her I was spraying her garden with my Sevin and she said okay. So I did! Damn!!!!

I told her that next year, just give me the money she spends on her stuff and I'll just send her some of my harvest when the time comes. "Oh no," says she, "this is too much fun for me." Damn again!

Just had to share that with you two because it sounds like you would understand me. So frustrating.

Trust me, I understand. I've used Sevin, reluctantly, but I couldn't squash them fast enough. Sprayed the stuff right on those boogers and I swear they looked at me and laughed.

Didn't know what I was thinking when I thought I could avoid them. We moved an no one any where remotely near us has a garden of any type. Those suckers are relentless. To make the matter worse, I just found that pickle worms had gotten to four of my zucchini and two squash. It was all I had growing out there. It's gone.

Thinking about letting it all go and moving my two unaffected, as of yet, pots to the back deck. Do you think the bugs would just feast on the ones out front and ignore the others?

I'm afraid that bugs are opportunists and nothing stops them. Spray those two unaffected pots just to make sure. I use liquid and spray some on the base of the vine and on a few leaves. This seems to work for me. I never spray the flowers.

You can kill a lot of the squash bugs with a simple soap spray; it works especially well on the nymphs. I have been able to control mine this way for several years. The soap spray can cause leaf burn... but the bugs are usually on the stem or ground, or can be knocked down just before spraying. It takes several applications to knock down their population, then I just need to watch for new infestations.

Cleaning any litter or dead leaves from beneath the vines is helpful, since the adults will hide there, or in the soil near the base of the vine.