Plant squash where it has not been planted before. Immediately put low tunnels over the plants' area, using PVC or electrical conduit as the framing and either insect barrier-type row cover or tulle netting over the bed. Use small boards to make sure the fabric is in firm contact with the ground on all 4 sides. This low tunnel should keep the pests off your squash plants for as long as you leave them covered. When it is time for pollination, you have the option of uncovering the plants so they can be pollinated by insects or you can uncover them just long enough to hand-pollinate them yourselves and recover them. Other less drastic measures to protect the plants would be to wrap the stems with aluminum foil, spray the plants with spinosad (relatively new pesticide and some people believe it works pretty well for SVBs but I haven't tried it), or spray the stems with neem. As the plants grow, heap up soil over the vines/stalks to they can root in multiple places. Plant Seminole pumpkin, a native winter squash from Florida that SVBs seldom bother. I plant mine in the middle of all my other squash plants and let it run wild among them, hoping it will help the more susceptible plants "hide" from the bugs. I plant rat-tail radishes among susceptible plants and they seem to help. As a bonus, the rat-tail seed pods are edible. I don't believe there is any "solution", organic or synthetic, for SVBs and squash bugs, other then building a pest-proof high tunnel or something similar, and even then I think it likely you couldn't make it 100% pest-proof. Hand-picking squash bugs and stink bugs when you find them helps, as does checking the backs of plant leaves for their eggs, removing them and destroying them before they hatch. With stink bugs, squash bugs and leaf-footed bugs, I find them pretty easy to suck up with a hand-held vac with strong suction (or a shop vac if you have a long enough extension cord to reach the garden), especially if you catch them while they are young. Younger ones in the nymph stage are easier to catch than adult ones. I haven't tried spraying the plants with kaolin clay to see if it repels them, but I have a big bag of Surround WP and am going to try it this year. I always start new squash plants in cups when I put the first squash plants into the ground. When the second set of plants is ready to go into the ground, I plant them as far away (in my case, in a small garden area 150' away from my big garden) from the original plants as possible. Then I start more seeds in cups and, when those are transplant size, I sneak them into a flower bed. Then, I start another set of seeds. If you're constantly starting new plants, planting them in scattered areas around your property if possible, and protecting them as well as you can, you will be able to get a squash harvest despite the SVBs and stink bugs. With tomato plants and the triplet pests of stink bugs, leaf-footed bugs and blister beetles, I haven't had much success other than handpicking them. Once again, you have to get them early while they're small and in the nymph stage. Some people have luck spraying a garlic barrier spray around the garden and that can work with some pests and not with others. Some years I have a lot of pest problems, other years I have relatively few, but I get a pretty good harvest every year. I garden organically but use almost no pesticides at all because some of the organic pesticides are every bit as hazardous as the synthetic ones and I won't poison the environment that our family and animals live in. It warmed up early here, although nights are still cold. We were 28 degrees here at our house this morning and had a frost all night long....it was already settling in on plants and vehicles at 10 p.m. last night. The pests have responded to the warm temperatures by showing up early. White cabbage moths have already showed up here looking for cole crops and I don't even have my broccoli in the ground yet. I take the early arrival of these pests to be a bad sign. Some people inject Bt into the stems of squash plants in an effort to kill SVBs with mixed results. There's just a limit to how far I'll go, and that goes beyond what I am willing to do. I don't have time to run around giving my plants injections. Dawn

does anybody know of websites that have answers?

Caterpillar of one kind or another. To find the culprits), look above the droppings. Probably blends in with the stems, so look closely.

In my experience, early blight usually shows up on the leaves first, spreading to the stems, and the lesions have concentric markings. That being said, I would still attempt to ID the problem as soon as possible and take appropriate action. Because this fungal disease can be so contagious and destructive (it's what caused the Irish potato famine), don't put it off - perhaps your local cooperative extension service can help? Are there any signs of disease on the leaves? Missouri Botanical Garden has a good article on this disease at http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/help-for-the-home-gardener/advice-tips-resources/pests-and-problems/diseases/fungal-spots/early-blight-of-tomato.aspx