Here's your picture:
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Sometimes squash plants lose a leaf or two because the vine gets turned by the wind and the weight of the plant pinches off a leaf. If that's the cause, remove the dying leaves and compost them, the rest of the plant will go on. Sometimes wind will move a vine enough to cause a crack in the vine. Piling dirt over the crack will help it to re-root and recover. Winter squash are (in general) not prone to the SVB but bugs are opportunists so you should check the main trunk of the plant for the "sawdust" entry site. If you see it, use a knife to operate and remove the grub...then pile dirt over the cut and hope for the best. If you've had very wet weather, sometimes squash will get crown rot and there's nothing to do for that but remove the vine and give room to the nearby plants.

Good luck with your squash!

Thanks for the follow up. The new fruit is dying as well. It was green and has turned orange and become soft. I have a bunch that are almost a foot in diameter. I will look closer for any bug investation that you mentioned. I suspect these rabbits. This is the first year for the garden next year a chicken wire fence around the perimeter dug into the ground will hopefully help keep them out.

I wouldn't think that rabbits would have anything to do with your squash. Looking at the pictures, there are a few things that could be happening here, SVB still may be a culprit. Also, you may have let it became too dried occasionally so some leaves got burned. Another thing, your plant is competing air and light with many tall weeds, I would clear all those and let your squash to have better air from the surounding. Heat plus dead airflow cause problems for any big plants.

Hmm, well, I have had a rabbit build her burrow nest and raise a brood of rabbits at the base of a squash before. They're usually careful to not kill their cover but it doesn't mean that they can't dig out too much and dry the roots of the plants.

That is a C. maxima and very attractive to SVB. Look for frass and signs of the plant rotting from its base.

I started removing the dead leaves and found this at the base of each of the two plants (see picture). I did not find any kind of grub or larvae. I still want to think rabbit. When I removed the squash there were only about 5 or 6 weeds in the whole area. I harvested about 4 squash however if they are like the ones we had last week they are not mature enough to have any flavor. The meat is light yellow instead of orange.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:82603}}

Crown rot?
How much rain have you had?
How much watering have you done, and what type?
Is your soil clay or sand or loam...

Lots of variables here.

I am new here and do not know how to do a search. I did however see a post from a couple of days ago and it was similar to mine and sure enough it is the Squash vine Borer. I cut a 6 inch section above the picture I posted above and there was a grub worm in there. Funny my online name is eurolarva and that is exactly what was in the squash. I even remember seeing an odd bee that was red a couple of weeks ago. I harvested the crop I had and pulled the rest. Thanks for the help. I have plenty of other vegetables so I will be here more often. Once again thanks for helping me find the problem. At least now I dont have to kill that pesky wabbit.

C. Maxima (Kabocha and Buttercup types) seem even more suceptible to SVB than C. pepo. In the future you may want to try a C. moschata (Butternut family). They are very resistant to SVB.

Does granite's posting of the photo show for others and not me?

I'll try it here:
{{gwi:82605}}

eurolarva,

To search, go to the front page of the Vegetable Gardening Forum and Scroll down. You will see the following:

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In the "Search" field, you can type in key words to find what you're looking for. In your case you can type in: squash vine borer

Here is a link that might be useful: You'll see there are dozens of existing threads on the topic