Defeating the Squash Vine Borer – A Simple, No Chem Garden Hack

By Pollinator at the English language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1350965

I love squash, especially the winter varieties. How many other fruits can be enjoyed after sitting in a pantry for 6+ months with no refrigeration, canning or dehydrating? What a great prepper food to grow!

Pennsylvania Crookneck and Sugar Pie varieties curing by the window

I loved watching the sprawling vines fill up with large yellow blossoms and enormous 2-20 lb fruits all summer and thinking about the pies, soups and stews in the coming fall and winter. It wouldn’t be until spring when the last of the previous year’s harvest were used up.

The only serious pest I had to deal with was the Squash Vine Borer (the Squash Bug, a different pest altogether, was a mild nuisance compared to these other little red and black marauders). But as long as I protected the vines during the egg-laying weeks in spring, I was in good shape.

That was, until I moved to Texas, where apparently love is in the air all spring and summer long for these critters.

My first two years here, all of the squash I planted were completely wiped out. Summer…Winter…all varieties. They started out well enough, then suddenly, the vines collapsed. It was crushing. I searched around for solutions from other gardeners, which ranged from organic oils to wrapping the stems in aluminum foil, but none were very effective. There was always the row cover option if you don’t mind hand pollinating, but I couldn’t put the bees out of a job in this economy! I was desperate.

In my search, I stumbled across a tip from a poster on permies.com who had success by wrapping the stems in vet tape. I didn’t know what ‘vet tape’ was, but after a quick search on amazon I was open to giving it a try.

2" roll of vet tape

First, I made small covers to give the seedlings some early protection and allow the stems to grow long enough for me to work on (no joke - as soon as the seeds sprouted the vine borers were circling). I made the cover by cutting off the bottom 2 inches of a quart size yogurt container. I covered the rim of the container with a disposable coffee pot filter, holding it in place with a rubber band.

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Once the plants were big enough (about 3 ½-4” tall) it was time to apply the tape.

I gently brushed back the soil from the base of the stem with my finger until I saw the tops of the roots (take care to not damage the roots).

Then, I cut about a 2” piece of vet tape (so 2”x2”) and gently wrapped it around the very bottom of the stem (just above roots) all the way up to the first leaves. The vet tape clings to itself like plastic wrap, but will stretch as the plant grows.

Finally, move the soil back around the base of the plant, covering the bottom half of the stem with the tape around it.

That’s it.

Here we are one month later and everything is looking good. I see no scratches or holes in the stems that would indicate borer damage. They are the happiest looking squash plants I’ve seen in the garden in 3 years! I’m still waiting for the female flowers (w/ fruit) to appear, but there are over a dozen male flowers getting ready to bloom. It may be a little early to declare victory, but I think the borers are on the ropes and will need to rethink their next offensive.

Healthy Summer Squash (bush variety) after 1 month

I hope this helps. I’ll post an update with the final results at the end of the season.

-JB

and for verification…