Never tried it, but I did try AgriBon row covers. The biggest problem, and one I am sure you will run into as well, is that you have to hand pollinate, since the cover keeps out the beneficials as well. It was a huge pain for me to move all my covers, pollinate, then re-cover. Every. Single. Day.
In addition on the really hot days my plants suffered under the covers. How are you ventilating them? Watering was also difficult, as I had no ground irrigation. I have to overhead hose water, and it really didn't penetrate the Agribon very well.
Have you tried any of the moschata pumpkin species? The borers don't touch them!

Hi, I don't have a problem hand pollinating, but I see what you mean.

I just received this for Christmas, so I haven't even set it up yet. But, there is supposed to be spots for ventilation. I am assuming that since it is plastic, it is just a few spots where you tie off a window. I wondered about the heat and the hot days. Watering will be a pain.

Have you tried dichotomous earth? That is something new (to me anyway) that is supposed to kill the vine borer. I have never heard about the moschata pumpkins species, thanks for the tip!

Will be interesting to see if your cover works out--keep us updated. I am always looking for ways to combat those buggers. They get up to half my plants some years. Burying doesn't work for me, as they seem to lay eggs all along the secondary vines on my plants as well as the base. I've not had any luck with DE with them either.

Definitely try a few moschata species this year; you'll love their insect resistance!

So, I ordered three different kinds of the moschata pumpkins. This leads me to my next question. Squash Vine borers don't bother these types at all or just less than other varieties. I am thinking of using the dichotomous earth and the hotthouse cover. I don't want to overdo it, but I also would like to have some pumpkins for a change.

I have a raised garden bed that we have filled with garden soil bought at the store. (we have no top soil to speak of, so all our garden beds are raised) I regularly ammend the soil with compost and we add new bags of soil frequently. I have also added sand, manure, ect over the last couple of years. I did test the ph and it seems to be fine.

I hand pull weeds, and use a combo of black plastic, newspaper and mulch in my garden. (Black plastic for the melons ) Full sun, yes. I have tried planting many pumpkins to have it balance out and I still lost all of them. l do fertilize with regular garden grow. I also side dress my plants with compost.

I like your idea of using a pin rather than cutting the vine open. I will have to try that. I might be cutting to large of a hole to kill it and then the plant can't recover. I will also try the summer squash idea. I love summer squash anyhow.

Basically there is no topsoil in our neighborhood. They put sod on whatever was left after they built the house. The garden bed where I am trying to grow the pumpkins is about 8 inches deep (a guess because I am not there right now). It does not have a bottom other than the cloth that you put down to kill the grass in that spot.

Plants are healthy before the Vine borer attacks. I have researched the technique that you are referring to and have only made the slits in the vine. (I shouldn't have said large holes) I think this is just a matter of semantics. The point is that the slits didn't work for me and the plant still died.

I will try your pin technique and will also try my covering. I am also going to try the Diatomaceous earth. I am trying to contact my local extension person about this, so we will see what she says. Thank you for your help.

I do what weirdtrev does with planting a sacrificial plant of one of the other species. But I'm not sure it's necessary, or the cover either. I have truly never seen a single borer on them. The squash bugs barely get them either.

I am the magnet of all that kills plants, but last year, I (almost) nailed it. I get attacked by SVB and mildew every year. I rotate crops, I buy disease resistant seeds. So last spring, we covered each squash/zuke plant with floating row cover built around a little cage, clipped with clothespins. We made a little hose irrigation system set on timers. No bugs getting in there! I went out each morning and hand pollinated. The plants were gorgeous. I read that the SVB only live in moth form and lay eggs for a certain amount of weeks, so I was hoping when I left on a week long vacation in mid-July it would be safe to uncover them and let the bees have their heyday. Well guess who saw her first SVB ever minutes before leaving the house? I squished him and left with a sick feeling that my entire garden was doomed. I was pinching eggs left and right when I came home (and they lay them everywhere not just the base of the stem-thank God I am nearsighted), I caught every single branch and stem before they destroyed everything. So even though they got me, they didn't GET me completely! -um, but the mildew did, I also had squash bugs! This was new for me. For this year, we decided since the plants did so well undercover last year (even in heat) that we will build a nice little "greenhouse" style cover and leave it like that the entire summer. There is a video on youtube how to do it, ours will be much smaller than the video. I don't want to ugly up my neighbor's view of my yard too much. Hopefully this year I will officially win the war :).

I completely understand what you are going through. I hate to even go anywhere during the summer because I don't want to lose the battle with the bugs. I will try and find the you tube video on covering and see how it compares to my little greenhouse I got for Christmas.

When we lived in Wisconsin, I had more pumpkins than I knew what to do with . Here, I have been lucky to get one. Hopefully I can win this battle this year and at least have a few. Good luck to you !