Nice link, and a very good article. The ATTRA publications are very useful for organic gardening... I still haven't worked my way through all of them. SVB is terrible in my area, and would kill up to 100% of my C. pepo and C. maxima squashes without protection. For the past 3 years, I've applied floating row covers over those squashes after planting (I use transplants). The row cover is buried at all edges, and remains on until female flowers have appeared, or until the vines outgrow the cover. This appears to protect the plants during SVB egg laying, because I've had no infestations at all on covered plants. Not only that, but there have been very few squash bugs, and the population of cucumber beetles is much reduced. I could not grow squash reliably without this method. A couple of my own observations. As quoted from the article, ..."Supplemental fertilization may be necessary to promote the vigorously growing plants that can tolerate one or two borers and still produce a crop through additional rooting along the stem." My own observations have been that fertilized squash plants seem to be more attractive to squash bugs & cuke beetles. This would seem to make sense, since the compounds which attract the insects might be released in larger quantities, under the more rapid growth caused by the fertilizer... particularly the high-N fertilizer that stimulates heavier foliage. Because of this observation, I stopped using fertilizer on my squash two years ago, and the pest pressure has been much less than in previous years. Unfortunately, my yields without fertilizer have also been noticeably lower. It may be that low-N fertilizer, and/or later application, might offer the best of both worlds... I will be experimenting further in that direction. "The buttercups always seem to develop supplemental roots, never the moschatas which are resistant anyway. The more I work with OP summer squash (C. pepo), the more I see stem re-rooting, which really does help them survive borers. The OP yellow crookneck from Fedco ran 14 feet and rooted like crazy." The tendency to root at the nodes is present in all squash species, but varies by variety. I grew some of the smaller Butternuts, which were very reluctant to root. "Tahitian", also C. moschata, roots aggressively. One year, I hybridized a Butternut with "Tahitian"; the resultant seed produced very large butternuts, and vines that rooted heavily. One of the rave reviews on the Cornell site for "Zucchetta Rampicante" is mine. ;-) It roots very aggressively. Some years it gets attacked by SVB (I can see the frass) but it seems to kill the larvae, and the vines show no sign of infection later in the season. Squash bugs also might attack it when the plants are young, but once established, nothing touches it. Oh, another pest observation. When I see swarms of cuke beetles attacking a particular plant of "Zucchetta", I nearly always find a mature squash bug attacking the stem. The reaction of the plant to this attack - and its weakened state - appears to attract the beetles. The single squash bugs are easily killed with a soap spray. Last year, I grew several naked-seeded C. pepo pumpkins for trial. The semi-bush "Kakai" was very reluctant to form roots; and it has been very susceptible to SVB for me in the past. "Little Greenseed", on the other hand, had long vines & rooted wherever it contacted bare soil. If SVB attack can't be prevented, choose varieties that have demonstrated good rooting potential.

Is it worth it to spray the Sevin now... of should I wait til they hatch? As much as I hope that I did, I'm assuming I didn't find all of the clusters.

I have gone through all my plants once now, pulling them out- to date I've found around 12-13, with another one or two on the surface I pulled up before they could drill in. I'm still worried, though... the vine borers have a habit of drilling into leaves, which weakens or sometimes completely kills the leaves. My biggest vine has lost almost half of its leaves so far. Also, even though the eggs are still hatching, I can't use anything to spray them because I grow Romaine lettuce for my tortoise right by the pumpkins, and I would never risk something getting into his food. I heard someone say that wiping down the vine every day with a wet wash rag would stop at least some of them from getting in. Does this work? Thank you both for posting!!! By the way, does anyone know when the eggs should stop hatching in Iowa? (P.S.- Sorry that the image is sideways!)

Good question. Squash vine borers are looking for hollow stems that they can penetrate to deposit their larvae. Not too many plants with such inviting stems. Brassicas can sometimes have hollow stems, but the stems are pretty tough. I don't think an SVB could get in them. I guess dahlias and daffodills have such stems, but I've never heard of SVBs attacking them. You do have to wonder how an SVB knows it's sitting on a penetrable squash stem. Must be something about the smell that they like. Here! Dig here!