It seems that some on this thread are mixed up between squash bugs and Squash Vine Borers. Squash bugs are very easy to kill with a Permethrin and Dawn dish soap spray as long as you hit the bugs with it. When I am watering or fertilizing with liquid fertilizers early in the morning the squash bugs will start moving and crawling on the mulch when I am wetting it down. I just spray them when I see them. If they are really bad I will spray the whole plant late in the evening and make sure to get the mulch also. I also do a careful search and destroy every two weeks on the eggs but I always miss some. If you can find the juveniles shortly after hatching they are really easy to kill since they herd together for a few days and are very susceptible to the Permethrin and soap spray.
For SVBs I have found a solution using Sevin that is almost 100% effective but it takes being conscientious in the way it is applied. You need some form of small duster with Sevin dust in it. Apply the dust to just the base of the stem and the soil or mulch right around the base. This needs to be applied after every hard rain or good watering. As the plant gets larger I will apply it further up the stem. This way the Sevin doesn't come into contact with the fruit or blossoms but I still like to do it in the evening just in case the dust were to drift a little. I haven't had a plant get SVB for the last half dozen years as long as I keep them dusted.
I just applied a spray of Sevin to almost everything in my garden this week. This is the first time I have used it like this in a long long time but I was being overwhelmed with large grasshoppers and foliage worms. The grasshoppers were defoliating my large okra plants and my citrus plants that are in containers at the edge of the garden. There were hundreds of them and they were sure hungry. I have never seen those little foliage worms so bad as the past few weeks. I tried using BT twice to no avail. The second time I used it double strength only to find the worms by the millions on my okra, peppers, tomatoes, beans, and fall cucumbers. I did the Sevin spraying two days ago just before dark. I was out this morning fertilizing my cucumbers, peppers and beans. While out there I did a thorough check for worms and grasshoppers and didn't see a single one and the plants look so much better. It really perked them up not having those worms eating them up and causing them to lose so much moisture in the intense heat we have been having lately. I didn't see any diminishing of the bee population which was a relief.
That Sevin may be a bit strong but when the chips are down and chewing insects are destroying your garden I haven't seen anything else I would even consider putting on food crops that comes close to being that effective.
Bill
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