That's an interesting strategy. Don't surgically remove the SVB larva, but find the head and kill it by piercing it with a needle. That ought to do vastly less damage to the stem than slicing it open. Does that strategy really work? In fact, one could impale it in several places without doing much harm to the plant. Does that really work? How many stabs can a SVB larva survive? Were you trying to post a link?

I went out last night to try the flashlight trick. Unfortunately it didn't work for me. I couldn't see any indication of where the caterpillar was located. Maybe if I tried with a smaller flashlight? It was just too bright. I did try poking a few holes with a pushpin. This morning I went to investigate the plants and it looks like a few more may have gotten to several of my pumpkin. I tried surgery on three of the plants that showed what looked like frass. I had no luck finding the caterpillar. Do they move quickly up the vines? I was afraid of making too many cuts. Ah, I'm so discouraged and sad. I'm also a little squeamish about bugs so I don't know how I would've managed finding and killing the caterpillar.

I read that technique online and shared it but have never tried it myself. There are many results if you Google it.

Probably better off injecting Bt with a needle rather than relying on stabbing. Have you looked into that method? It is probably the second most common recommendation after the cutting of the vines.

Just ordered some Thuricide last night from Amazon. So, I'll try it when it in a few days. Hopefully it won't be too late. The damage looks relatively young compared to all the images and videos I've seen so far. I'm hopeful. Here's another pic of another plant.

I wasn't successful at trying to find the little bugger. So sad. I was really excited about growing my pumpkins on an arched trellis. They were looking so promising too.

Injecting Bt with a needle just takes longer, and you need Bt. I've seen vague references to stabbing the larva with a needle or wire online, but no real strategy. We're supposed to Google "squash vine borer"+"stabbing"? I don't get much.

daninthedirt:

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=squash+vine+borer+flashlight+stab

I see several results on the first page....

Like I said I have not tried it, so I cannot verify it works, it may very well not work, but there isn't much to lose to try. The injecting Bt method seems to be the best to me, with more information available to indicate its effectiveness. I also have not tried that, but I have been spraying my stems with it, twice a week, with success as a preventative.

Lydia:

Don't lose hope... inject the Bt when you get it. Your plants may turn out fine. All of mine had SVB last year and produced ok anyway.

Thanks. But again, these are mostly just one sentence jab-and-go instructions. When I look more carefully, I see someone suggesting that, once the larva is found, to stab the vine in 1cm intervals around it in a line, and then go back and do the same thing 90 degrees around the vine. Someone else says to stab once with a toothpick and leave the toothpick in (!?) Someone else says to stab the vine at an angle so it penetrates the larva more or less lengthwise. If you stab the larva once anywhere, does that kill it?

The surgery option, which calls for removal of the larva, really doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If you know where it is, why extract it? Just stab it and leave it. Or is the stem compromised by having a dead larva in it? Seems to me that slicing the stem is going to be vastly more damaging to the plant than sticking a pin or a wire through it.

A number of people claim this stabbing method to be unsuccessful. Why might that be? Because you don't really know where it is? If you don't know where it is, what are you going to do with a knife?

I agree, more info would be great - even for the slice the vine thing. There are often many of them in the vines. I know there were other posters commenting recently on removing many of them, hopefully they can chime in on how they found them, and someone can try stabbing one and seeing what it takes to kill it....

I think part of the reason any of these methods are unsuccessful is because by the time they are tried the plant is already wilting and severely damaged and killing the larva can't undo that. In fact, by the time people slit the stem, they probably wind up doing more damage than the borer.

Has anyone tried injecting soapy water into the holes? I did that and noticed that often the larva would start coming out of the hole. It sometimes flushes them out, if you inject enough.

Are you piercing the SVB?

vieja (7NM):

we get squash bugs every year (not the borers I don't think); have tried planting in June when the egg laying is mostly past I had read? & tried different sprays. This year I cut large squares out of some red plastic I had; cut a small hole in the center of each & planted the zucchini plant in the hole (drip irrigation under the plastic) to the soil beneath. Can this plastic deter the bugs from going over the plastic to the plants ... or will they just go over or under the plastic to get to the plants anyway?

BTW: I have never seen plants grow so fast after planting!!! Is it the reflection from red plastic they are growing beneath? Never tried it before for that .. but hope it also deters the squash bugs!

I ordered some product that is supposed to deter these bugs... will see if it works We even had squash bugs on the melons growing nearby last year! We have loads of toads that breed in the small 200 gal. pool, yard & garden... hope they find these bugs 'tasty'!?