If you plant early and then protect tender young squash plants from frost damage, it will really pay off later in the season when the squash vine borers show up. The squash vine borer ranges from Canada to Argentina and is the most serious enemy of squashes and gourds. The borer causes much trouble where only a few plants are grown in gardens. Squash vine borers rarely attack cucumbers and melons.
Great variations exist in the susceptibility of squash varieties.
Butternut and Green-Striped Cushaw varieties are practically immune to attack, but Hubbard squash is highly susceptible. Damage is caused by larvae tunneling into stems, often killing plants, especially when the larvae are feeding in the basal portions of vines. Sometimes fruits are also attacked. Sudden wilting of a vine and sawdust-like excrement coming from holes in the stem are evidences of attack. The hind legs are fringed with black and orange hairs, and markings of similar color occur over much of the abdomen.