Squashing those darn squash bugs!!! Any advice?

[theHandpuppet]

How do you get rid of the little buggers? I've had a problem with these pests for several years now, which has discouraged me from planting any more sqaush and watermelons. Last year I literally had thousands of these nasty things emerge from a tiny patch of squash. They were all over the place -- so many of them they covered the steps to my porch and porch railing. You couldn't get to the back yard without crunching a pile of them with each step. It was like something out of a horror movie. Gross! I try to maintain a fully organic garden but there are times....

[Kolesar]

1. Plant in a different place this year. Put a row cover over the plants for as long as you can...

Those are ideas that are "out of the book". I cannot guarantee them.

[spinbaby]

2. I'm skipping squash this year

Okay, I might plant a bit of zucchini near the house. But the garden gets none of the squash family this year. Gonna starve the buggers out.

Covering doesn't work, garlic concoctions don't work, rotenone doesn't work. Horrible buggers. If you find a solution, I'd sure like to hear about it.

[theHandpuppet]

3. Yeah, I think I'll skip planting squash this year, too

Starving them out seems the only option. I looked up a list of pesticides that can be used to kill them -- yeah, they might kill the squash bugs but I sure wouldn't want to eat anything that had been sprayed with those poisons!

[piedmont]

6. What about diatomaceous earth? nt

[TygrBright]

4. Getcherself a coupla banties and let 'em roam the squash bed. n/t

[AlecBGreen]

5. nature's exterminator!

[japple]

7. Haven't had that problem with my squash and zucchini,

and I wonder if it's because they like the weather better somewhere else. It's been ungodly hot this year, here in GA, and the birds seem to have taken care of most of the pests in my garden. I dusted my beans once, but the only real pest I've had trouble with has been those darn flea beetles.