When they start out yes apparently because that is what I found in one of the stalks. The ones I caught late last year was at a half inch severing the main butternut runner. I figure these are newly hatched. These have turned one of the most prolific and reliable summer vegetables I grew before into Canadian Okra.

Thank you both! Tcstoher, it's odd because I have quite a few bees pollinating my squash, but I very rarely see them meander a few inches over to my cukes. You may be right about lack of pollination being the problem. Thanks Maureen. Yeah, I love my garden this year, but I have decided that if I weren't a teacher with my summers off, there would be no way to have a full garden! I have just spent 2 hours out there hunting for those eggs. I just hope I'm not too late and there aren't more borers already in my plant! Fingers crossed. Oh, dumb question here, but what do you mean by "bury the soil"? Did you mean I should bury the dead vine back in the soil? Sorry, I know that's an ignorant "newbie" question. :) Ally

Here's a good thread on the problem, from the Vegetable gardening forum. I haven't tried everything folk there mention. Basically, I only grow non-resistant species of squash sparingly, knowing that they often won't make it. I do inspect the leaves for squash bug eggs and the stems for squash vine borer eggs. But honestly, the borers sneak past me. I mainly grow squash from the c. moschata family, since most of them resist borers very well. We've taken to growing Scarchuk's Supreme, an acorn squash bred for SVB resistance. It does seem to resist them better than most. Another possibility you can do is to cover the stems of your squash with soil, wherever possible. This should cause them to root and give them more resistance to those inevitable attacks. Hope this helps! George Tahlequah, OK Here is a link that might be useful: Squash vine borer solutions

Primer: Pre-ferment is a method by which a small dough is made of yeast, flour and water, to develop the activity and flavor of the yeast, usually overnight. "Ferment" refers to the yeast activity in the final bread dough. Biga (Italian) and levain (French) are pre-ferments. Usually, however not exclusively, bigas are made with commercial yeast, and levains are made with sourdough starter or saved levain starter. Those distinctions refer to the origins of the words. Many bakers use the words interchangeably. If you're not sure, just say "pre-ferment" and you're covered. Similarly, banneton, a woven basket, usually lined with cloth (French) and brotform, a coiled basket, less often lined with cloth (German) are used interchangeably for both types. In English, you can say "bread form" or "dough basket". Many people say "proofing basket", but I don't care for the word "proof" as a synonym for "rise". I'm not old, but I remember proving cake yeast before dry yeast was stable, but fresh yeast could have died. The yeast was proven (i.e., "proofed"), when the biga rose. The rises of the main dough were a given unless something really bad happened. Nowadays, people just toss in dried yeast and expect it to rise, and it does, so they proof in the baskets. This is a persnickety quibble that has no real meaning to anyone but me. :) Hydration refers to the weight of water in the dough based on the amount of flour, and is usually expressed as a percentage. The flour is always 100%. If there are different flours in the dough, then they have partial percentages, e.g., 95% unbleached white flour and 5% whole wheat (a substitute for European style bread flour). Add them up and they equal 100% because the flour is always 100%. This allows one to discuss, clearly, the amount of water in the dough, which can be more useful than adjectives such as loose, wet, sticky, tight, tacky, etc. If you have 1000g total of flour in your dough, and your recipe calls for 68% hydration, you would use 680g of water. If you have 650g of white flour, 120g of whole wheat, and 30g of rye flour, for a total of 800g flour, 68% hydration would mean 544g of water. These percentages really only apply to what's in the bowl. When you do your stretch and folds on additional flour, you're changing the percentage. When you wet your hands to do them, you're also changing the percentage. So they make it easier to talk about baking, but every baker is still going to have slightly different results. Factor in environment--flour absorbs humidity from the air, and also releases it and dries out. It also has a fat component, though much less with white flour, especially bleached. (Put your white flour in a half full, air tight container for a year (i.e., trapping in some air so oxidation will take place), and even the bleached stuff will smell rancid when you open it up (personal experience talking).) If you oil your surfaces, hands, etc., a trace of oil can also be added, mostly negligible, but sometimes a few drops can make a big difference. With all of those factors, as well, the percentages refer to the basic recipe, and the rest is whatever works for you. Like S&P to taste. Experience is king. Repetition is important. Getting a feel for it is crucial.