Hi beachguy - Sorry to hear about the losses. Squash bugs and squash vine borer are 2 very different pests with different damage and different controls. I am assuming that is was the SVB's that got your plants, right? If so, a search here will find you many discussions on them to review for tips.

The best preventative I have found for the borers is using row covers as insect barriers. That way the moth can't lay the eggs that become the borers. ;)

Squash Bugs

Squash Vine Borers

Good luck with the second planting. ;)

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Squash Vine Borer and Squash Bug

I would prefer organic but only if it will actually work. Any suggestions on specific products to buy?

Coverings are not enough. They can come up from underneath the soil as well if they are in a different stage of their life cycle.

You can still go organic and stay organic. Organic insecticides should be used with caution as well.

The best thing you can do is plant resistant varieties to begin with.
Check with your state's Extension Service. Each county should have it's own Cooperative Extension Office which provides free publications and information for the asking. They will have valuable vegetable/gardening tables available specifically for your area determined by universities and horticultural research scientists who have collected data from growing those crops in your state. Your tax dollars are already paying for this service so you may as well get some use out of it. They should have info varieties you should look for.

Beachguy, if your problem is the SVB, I haven't found any organic pesticides that really work. You can play all day with row covers, Bt, aluminum foil, nylons/panty hose, etc, and still lose everything and look foolish in the process.

Some methods to conquer the SVB below will be controversial or objectionable to some here, but I did use the word CONQUER, and not BATTLE. The goal is to win, not just fight, and that may be best left to non-organic means.

For SVB's, I've found there are really just 3 choices:

1.Spend a couple hours every couple days laying on cardboard or a rug on the ground inches away from the vine inspecting it closely and removing any eggs. Even doing this, you'll still look foolish!

2.Use non-organic products. Most effective are Bug-B-Gon Concentrate with the active ingredient Esfenvalerate; any products with the active ingredient Lambda-cyhalothrin; products with the active ingredient Imidacloprid.

3.Befriend a farmer who uses Scimitar CS or Warrior-T... or try to find some on the internet. You only need about a shot-glass full to last all season.

Problem solved.

The only other way you may be successful is to use a breathable weedblock fabric below the plant and floating row cover above it... it too can have problems--you must remove the row cover to pollinate by hand, or remove it long enough for bees to pollinate flowers, however this exposes the plant to the adult SVB to lay eggs again; and if the weedblock isn't fastened securely, and you plant in the same spot as previous years, there's still a chance an emerging moth from below can come up thru the hole you cut out for the plant!

Hope this helps.

In addition to planting resistant varieties, you can plant outside their lifecycle. Check with your extension to ask when it usually ends in your area.

Violet - that does not always work. I had to discover the hatching dates myself as my extension service was very vague about it - they didn't really know is what it amounts to. They give basic information about the habits of the insect and that standard "spray the base of the plant" spiel. They are clueless. I have determined (from my own experiences with SVB) that in my area the whole month of July is a problem. We seem to have no "second hatching" here as has been observed in other zones, so it could be worse.

Sorry for your loss. Good luck with second planting....