OK, folks, I am getting the picture. In the South, we are fighting a delaying tactic, because we can't hope to actually win. That means I should set a continuing bunch of plants out - new cannonfodder to take the ranks of those that die in battle. Thanks for everyone's ideas on this.

[QUOTE=ScottinAtlanta;264566]OK, folks, I am getting the picture. In the South, we are fighting a delaying tactic, because we can't hope to actually win. That means I should set a continuing bunch of plants out - new cannonfodder to take the ranks of those that die in battle. Thanks for everyone's ideas on this.[/QUOTE]

That's what worked for me last year with my summer squash. The first round were planted earlier in the season at one end of a bed, and the second round went out a bit later on the opposite end of my second bed. By the time the first plants were succumbing to the attack, the reinforcements were just starting to produce.

I've tried the foil, and several other methods, and agree that down here it's no more than delaying and only a matter of time....here it's clockwork, first major hits by June 1 and out of business by June 15th!

So far the only squash I've managed to get a good harvest from in this area have been cushaws. This year I'm trying butternuts because I've heard they're also resistant. Any members of C. pepo, especially the bush ones, don't even manage to make fruit before they're borered to death. I start seeing sawdust around them before the plant is even mature!

Don't get me wrong, the cushaws got borers too (some of them even got in the actual fruit), but they were able to soldier on and give a good harvest depsite having holes in half their vines.

I tried spraying with neem oil and with Bt and neither worked. I'm not using Sevin.

I get summer squash in my CSA bag (yes I have a CSA AND a garden), so I asked my farmer what he does about the borers. He said he uses floating row covers. He keeps the plants covered until the bloom, then takes it off, and that seems to give the plants enough of a head start to get some fruit off them before the borers get them. He said I could also hand-pollinate and keep the covers on longer, but he doesn't do that because it would be too much work for how many plants he has.

So I might try that with the summer squash this year.

As for timing, borers seem to be here all summer. Last year I first saw them in May or June and still saw them flying around in August. The only thing I've noticed is that bees seem to come out early in the morning, while borers come out in the later morning or afternoon, so maybe the row covers can be taken off early in the morning and then put back on when the bees are done, but I don't have time to do that every morning before work.

I've tried to swat the moths themselves before when I see them flying around, but they're too quick. I've heard a tennis racket works for that, but I don't have one.

I just came across this pdf article called
Repulsion of Cucumber Beetles in Cucumber and Squash Using Aluminum-coated Plastic Mulch (4 pages)
[url]http://horttech.ashspublications.org/content/9/2/247.full.pdf[/url]

Bumping this thread. I am putting together a shopping list and wondered if I should add Sevin and did a search and came across this thread. Since this thread is five years old, I wanted to see if there are updates/new information about pest control for cucurbits, I am more concerned about cucumbers than squash.

One thing I thought about, that was mentioned above, is to do succession/back up planting throughout the season to address that some or most of the plants are going to succumb to disease or pest before the growing season ends.

I did not read back through this entire thread but if you are concerned with cucumbers then you are probably having trouble with the bacterial wilt that is carried by the spotted cucumber beetle. The beetle itself does not kill the vines but the bacterial wilt that they carry does.

I am an organic gardener so I do not spray pesticides so I had been unable to get a decent crop of cucumbers for several years. Now I only raise the variety called County Fair and it is resistant to the bacterial wilt. Eventually the vines succumb but not before I have had a decent crop. Succession planting would help with this too since you live in the south and have a longer season. The later planted ones would last longer and thus give you a longer harvest.

There is also a variety that can be grow under row covers and does not require pollination by insects. I tried this one year and it was OK but the vines were really big and hard to keep covered. I forget the variety name but you can google parthenocarpic cucumbers if you are interested. It might be Diva but I am not sure.

Nothing new on Squash Vine Borer control that I know of except to keep planting new squash or injecting the vines with bt to kill the larvae that are already in them. I get enough squash to keep me happy by doing this.

[QUOTE=brownrexx;629105]I did not read back through this entire thread but if you are concerned with cucumbers then you are probably having trouble with the bacterial wilt that is carried by the spotted cucumber beetle. The beetle itself does not kill the vines but the bacterial wilt that they carry does.

I am an organic gardener so I do not spray pesticides so I had been unable to get a decent crop of cucumbers for several years. Now I only raise the variety called County Fair and it is resistant to the bacterial wilt. Eventually the vines succumb but not before I have had a decent crop. Succession planting would help with this too since you live in the south and have a longer season. The later planted ones would last longer and thus give you a longer harvest.

There is also a variety that can be grow under row covers and does not require pollination by insects. I tried this one year and it was OK but the vines were really big and hard to keep covered. I forget the variety name but you can google parthenocarpic cucumbers if you are interested. It might be Diva but I am not sure.

Nothing new on Squash Vine Borer control that I know of except to keep planting new squash or injecting the vines with bt to kill the larvae that are already in them. I get enough squash to keep me happy by doing this.[/QUOTE]

No cucumber beetle no spray.
My vines now last all summer most of the time.