Well, it seems early, but I guess they start early over there where you live so they can squeeze in a couple of extra generations per year. I guess I'll start seriously watching for them now because you and I are only a county apart.

I haven't even seen squash bugs yet (not that I'm complaining). However, I've got the flu and barely have stepped foot in the garden since last week so it is possible that I have everything under the sun out there and will be in for a rude awakening when I finally have enough energy to spend a little time in the garden.

If I had the issues you have with SVBs, I'd be tempted to take off a year from growing squash. That usually gives you at least a partially squash pest-free year the following year after the year off. Well, unless you have native cucurbits like we do. We have those stinky native buffalo gourds that seem to help sustain squash pests even when we aren't growing squash.

One method I'm using this year to grow some C. pepo and maybe C. maximas is to use micromesh and Biothrips Proteknet netting over hoops that cover the plants. I used them both with brassicas this year and they worked really well, though some cabbage loopers got underneath the Biothrips Proteknet near the end of the cabbage plants' lives. I must know have had it secured to the ground 100% of the way, or they wouldn't have been able to get in.

Here's where I found the Biothrips Proteknet in smaller sized pieces (as opposed to buying it in huge quantities from Johnny's Selected Seeds) and I want to add that their customer service was great and they shipped quickly:

Protek Net @ Purple Tools

Micromesh netting is available from many garden seed retailers like Territorial Seed and also can be found on Amazon.

This was my first year to use them both and I liked them both for use with brassicas. Now we'll get to see how they do with summer squash and maybe some sort of winter squash that is not C. moschata.

My future dream garden would have a hoop house covered with Proteknet within which I could grow squash and pumpkins. It would have to be a big hoophouse too because if I was going to go to all that trouble, I'd want a big hoophouse.

And, finally, I don't know if I've said this before, but I'll say it now. I try to garden as organically as possible....always have and always will, but I am not 100% organic. If ever there were anything on this earth that would cause me to purchase and use a chemical pesticide, the squash pests would be it. And, I did use a chemical pesticide to kill grasshoppers the one year they were stripping my tomato plants down to bare stems a couple of summers ago and swore I'd never do it again, but just thinking of having to deal with squash bugs and SVBs makes me rethink that idea. If there even is a chemical pesticide that would control squash bugs and squash vine borers, it would be almost worth compromising my principles to not have to deal with those little brats.

Good luck in your battle,

Dawn

If I did not have seeds from the hybrid I grew last year that I wanted to test over the next few years, I might consider it. As it is, I plan on ramping up my winter squash production. That being said, the SVBs could not kill off the squash last year, so I am keeping my fingers crossed this year. The plants just need to get big enough to take care of themselves.

It just seems so early for the SVBs. Why can't they arrive late for once instead of arriving so early? Nothing says "long battle about to begin" like SVBs arriving in May. I hate squash bugs almost as much.