How to prevent/get rid of squash vine borer?

I'm desperate to grow some lovely blue hubbard or kabocha squash, but the squash vine borer gets me every time. Any tips or tricks to prevent them from coming in, or to get rid of them if they haven't fully killed the plant? I read about lining the squash stem, at ground level and an inch below, with tin foil. Does that work? Thanks all. We live in NC, if it helps.

They're very common in my area, but they only slowly kill my vines. I'm usually able to get a decent harvest before the plants die by hunting the moths in my garden at dawn. I often find them sitting conspicuously on top of leaves near my squash vines first thing in the morning and I smash them at every chance. I don't know if it actually helps, but if my vines reach a decent size before the larvae are eating their insides out, I still get a decent crop. I only have a small garden though and I haven't tried the approaches you've found online.

This is a good overview of different ways you can try to control them: https://extension.umn.edu/yard-and-garden-insects/squash-vine-borers

Personally I don't have the time/attention to hunt and destroy them individually as Jake describes, though I know that can be effective. Last year we got no winter squash except butternuts due to borers.

This year I am using row cover and late planting to try to keep them off entirely. Since the borers are done laying eggs by July, I held off on planting all my cucurbits until just the past few days, and I'll keep them under row cover until we're a week into July. In my zone I should still have time to mature the crop, and hopefully I'll avoid the borers altogether. We'll see how it goes!

+1 for planting late if your season permits.  I also hide my squash plants in the weeds;)

Well, the late planting didn't work for me this time around. We still have borers. It's possible I didn't wait until it was late enough (I uncovered the plants a week into July). Shucks.

When I lived in Arizona we'd get hit with lots of these every summer. I usually dealt with them by inspecting my vines every couple of days. If I saw frass around the stem, I would take a piece of wire, bend and crimp a tight hook at the end, and poke it into the hole, gently fishing it along until I impaled the grub. Then I pulled it out bringing the culprit's carcass along the way, and put a handful of clay soil over the wound in the stem. This worked about 75% of the time, but I had to be vigilant. The clay not only helped to protect and heal the damaged part of the stem, but it also induced new roots at the node.

If I didn't find a borer hole until it was too late, I would bury the vine in compost and soil and water really well. If i was lucky the plant would put out enough new roots to keep it going past the area of damage. This worked about 25-50% of the time.

I lost 4 zucchini and pumpkin plants to squash vine borers in last two week. I couldn't detect it earlier until plants started to wilt. Stems were mushy but I was not able to find any larvae inside.  I also hilled up soil near the base but one squash still got attacked above that. I learnt the lesson last year so I already have a couple young zuk going to replace the diseased ones this year.

We cut the borers out of the stems as you described, Phil, though less gently with a knife and not wire. (The wire's a good tip, and I'll remember that for the next time.) Then I buried the stems in compost, fertilized, and watered well. So far the plants appear to be surviving. Our plants are healthier than last year and I would guess the borer pressure is less, so maybe we'll get something out of them nonetheless.

I read somewhere that you can wrap athletic support tape around the base of the vines to keep the moths from laying their eggs. It’s stretchy and breathable. I tried it this year, and thus far, I haven’t lost anything to borers or seen any signs of that kind of damage. Last year by this time, I had lost my entire crop.

I bought a six pack of “vet tape” from Amazon. Each one is a different color. I used red.

The Invasive spotted lantern flies, though, are giving my cucumbers a hard time.

D

I learned about these pheromone traps and have been using them this season: http://www.hollandsgiants.com/squashVineBorerTraps.html

I catch a few to a dozen SVB every day. It's not a perfect protection, but that's a a lot fewer SVB's to lay eggs on my plants. It's also very satisfying to kill them.

We have always grown a lot of the Moschata variety of squash.  Bakers Creek has a pretty good selection of this type.  The vines are too hard for the vine borers.  

I second Ed on this- we have 100% mortality on pepo and maxima by August here and maybe 20% on moschata. Argyrosperma seem very resistant but they don't store well for me.

Yes, the moschatas are the safest bet for sure, but there are so many beautiful types of squash in the maxima and pepo species! We can't give up trying them just yet.

Most of our plants (80-90%) are still enduring regular borer surgery and seem to be rolling along without a problem. The borer pressure also seems to have declined, so at the moment I'm feeling optimistic that we may make it to a harvest with the winter squash.