"enigma" wrote in message
.. .
"Katey Didd" wrote in
:

The vine borers here get into the main stem and kill the
plant, not the seedlings. They usually start their damage
when the fruits have already started to form. I've yet to
ever see the adults. I've tried to slit the vines to remove
them and the plants would die anyway. They're not easy to
find in the vines and slitting the vines seems to kill the
plants even faster. Have you tried tinfoil collars and did
the work for you?

the adult is a clearwing moth.
i've never had borers kill mature vines, but i bury vines as
they grow so that they root along the length. i do put tinfoil
collars on young plants of the squash & cucumber family. if
borers are a real problem, you could try floating row covers &
hand pollenate the flowers...

We're retired now and can't afford to by row covers. This gardening is
starting to get expensive. Insecticide, weed cloth, fertilizers, limestone,
Ironite.........

are you slitting the vines where the borers are, or are you
slitting the entire vine looking for them? there's usually a
hole with frass near the borers location, & the moth lays the
eggs at the base of the vine, so the first place to look is at
the base, & then look for the frass.

The *&^%$# borer is usually not near the hole. I have to slit the stem and
look for it, and the plant (crooknecks and zucchini) never recovers. I'm
going to put collars on them and use Sevin under and around the collars. If
that doesn't work I'll have to give up on these squash.


lee
--
Last night while sitting in my chair
I pinged a host that wasn't there
It wasn't there again today
The host resolved to NSA.