Squash vine borers

Can anyone please tell me they have a way to fight them? I've tried row covers, BT, removing thousands of eggs, removing them from inside the vines etc....none are effective here. Anyone have any tips? I love these plants but they always die after I get only a few fruit before the plants die. HELP!

Fill a yellow container (or several containers depending on how many plants you have) with soapy water and set in the garden near the squash plants. The moths that lay the eggs are drawn to the yellow color and drown in the soapy water. Spray the bases of the plants with spinosad every 7-10 days.
We have organic market gardens and this works for us.

Thank you so much Calalily! Although I've gardened for years, I'm not really familiar with spinosad. I've just done a bit of research...but can you tell me that it wont hurt my beneficial insects...and that this is truly organic? I'm estatic in possibly finding something that will not only get rid of these suckers but also be organic and non-toxic to me and my family?? (I'm almost giddy and I know my sister-in-law will be too! We spent quite a while on the ground today picking off vine borer seeds and cutting open stems...)

Thank you so much for your advice, my sister-in-law and I are at wit's end!!!

Spinosad is made from a fermented fungus, it is approved in TX for organic production. I have not seen evidence of harm to beneficials, lizards, toads or dragon flies (we have plenty) Do not spray when bees are active because like most things (neem oil included) it is harmful to bees when wet.
Spinosad is not approved for organic in a couple of states and in some states is not allowed on certain crops. It is also the active ingredient in Comfortis dog flea control. Cats sometimes have a reaction to it, so don't let your cats in the garden until the spray is dry.
It is sold by Green Light and also Southern Ag (conserve).

Calalily,

Thank you so much for the information...you are a life-saver! I'm a hard-core organic gardener, but I have to admit that there were times that I felt like throwing in the towel and using conventional pesticides to fight these bugs...but I just can't. When I read that something as "harmless" (as many old-school farmers would say here) as Sevin Dust still needs seven days before it is "safe" to eat the produce, I realized that it wasn't going to do any good since you have to treat weekly for them to do keep infestations at bay. I think using something such as spinosad is much safer than a systemic pesticide overall and a good move in the right direction. I realize that in organic gardening, one has to learn how to "tolerate" a certain amount of damage on plants, and I'm not the type of gardener who needs to have "perfect" plants or fruit...but borers don't "share" nicely, and end up killing the whole plant...stinkers! I really don't understand how they have evolved since they end up killing the plant that keeps them alive. I would think they would find a happy medium? LOL! Thanks for helping me find something new to try! My sister-in-law and I were both commenting that when our grandparents grew their gardens, they never had problems with their squash plants. I'm wondering if they have migrated here over the years....as we used to have so much squash we were the ones leaving excess squash on our neighbors' door steps in the night! Although I'm not needing THAT much squash, I sure would love to have enough to get sick of it first! Thank you so much for your reply, we are both very appreciative!

Olivemaria, another thing that I have found helps with SVBs is silver mulch. I cut it to the width of my row (which is 30") and use long staples to hold it down, and then slit the mulch to plant my seeds. Supposedly it confuses the predators. I have had the best luck in years with SVBs, using that. Unfortunately now I'm dealing with squash bugs, which killed my early plants, so I'm trying again, using radishes interplanted, yellow bowls, and neem oil. I would like some zucchini! I too always had great luck with them until the past ten years or so.

There is a squash bug predator I think. Check with greenmethods.com.
I recently read on a website about the silver mulch (they also recommended spraying existing mulch silver, but that wouldn't be very organic! They also recommended row covers, but when squash is flowering you'd either have to remove the cover for a few hours in the morning or hand pollinate, neither of which will work for us as we have hundreds of plants.

I tried row covers but the squash just got too big for those to work. I'll check out greenmethods.com for their take on it.

I bought some 11 ft wide remay from Jordan Seeds, mostly for frost cover in case of freak freeze again and it works on the big stuff but I know what you mean. My squash rows are like jungles.