I'll try it as I've tried everything ever mentioned at lest once and of course nothing as of yet has been effective. The worst that can happen is having a shinny garden. Think I will make a collar and spread it around the outer extremities of the plant. Lets hope....

I think the idea has been mentioned here before, too. I should have pulled up a search before I started posting, but ah well. I can't remember if it was in the context of asking if it worked or saying that it had worked.

Ah, edit post, my new friend. Here's the thread I was thinking of.

Here is a link that might be useful: Svb discussion

This post was edited by sunnibel7 on Sun, Mar 24, 13 at 11:56

Oh, I was thinking of the one where a sheet of foil or reflective mulch was placed under the plant on the theory that it would confuse the moth, who is theoretically heading towards the dark soil. Not the one where you wrap foil around the stem. No idea if the the confusing foil actually confuses or not, other than that one luke-warm report because that was the first I had heard of that idea. Cheers!

I have tried it and it did not work for me. If you let the plant be until it dies, you will see that SVB enter the plant over the entire length of the mini-vine (in case of zucchini), and that can not be adequately protected because of the many branchings.

Row covers are a great pain for zucchini. My solution for SVB: 1) costata and Gold Rush until they keel over (here, around July 10). Thoroughly open the vine and kill everything in there. This may have been effective long ago, but now gardens are popping out all over the neighborhood. Still, I kill several per plant.

2) Around July 15, tromboncino kicks in and gives us too many zucchini until frost. For winter, we grow only butternut, although I came to realize that Long Island Cheese is also a Moschata, so I have bought seeds for LIC this year. We prefer tromboncino to zucchini anyway, and butternut has to be considered a top three winter squash. I myself prefer Kabocha, but not so much that I am willing to put in the effort.

Okay, folks. I knew it sounded too good to be true. Back to row covers and hand pollinating....
At least right now, the taste of smothered yellow crooknecks sounds worth the trouble....

Oh, spring! You're LATE!

aaaahhhgggghh, aaaahhgggghhhh!!!

SVB.

just mention them and I get hysterical.

HA! Now I'm getting hysterical reading your post.

Glib - I'm looking forward to planting tromboncino for the first time this year. Do the squash bugs attack these as well? Any suggestions on growing it? or using it?

I have never had any trouble with these varmints until last year, when they took everything I had except for just a few of my zucchini, acorns and butternuts. My pumpkins and patti pans were a total loss. Unfortunately, having never had any issues I wasn't prepared during or after, so I didn't remove the afflicted vines, or perform any of the other post-event actions. I am terrified of what might happen this year.

Tromboncino, butternut and Long Island are all moschata. That means woody stems and no SVB. They all die of frost in October. I see from wikipedia that there is a number of edible pumpkin types which are moschata, it may be worth for me to expand into pumpkins, since most of our squash ends up in soup anyway.

I have svb so bad that they bore into butternut squash FRUITS! I know they have at least 2 cycles here in Tulsa OK. Trying Captain Jacks dead bug this year at a heavy pace. Spinosad is kinda new so maybeeee?

Yes, it's a semi-myth that moschata is immune to SVBs. They are actually "resistant", which means it's harder for the moth to bore into the stems. The stems are harder, but they are hollow. But the SVBs will try, and they often succeed. I lose butternuts and tromboncinos routinely to SVBs. I don't even bother to grow non-moschata.

Didn't work for me... One year I spent some time just watching the moth's behavior. It lays eggs up to my height high!!!! Before I thought only to the knee level, was I wrong! And it takes the moth just one second to lay an egg, ONE second: it lands and bingo, takes off in a second and the egg is already there. Guess how many seconds it spends around my squash :D I killed some flying with a mosquito zapper :) Row covers....