A summer vegetable garden is just not complete without summer squash growing in the mix of tomatoes, peppers, okra and cucumbers.

The office has been busy getting calls and samples of squash plants that have seemingly died overnight.

All of this death and carnage in the veggie garden takes a toll on the gardener who has thoughts of fresh squash all summer long. Causing all this anxiety is the squash vine borer.

Squash vine borers are a definite pain to deal with but they can be managed.

These little guys overwinter in cocoons in the soil where squash has been planted before. When the adults emerge, they lay eggs on the stems of squash plants.

After about a week, the pale grubs hatch and eat their way into the stems near the soil level. As the grub feeds, the flow of water is cut off and the plant wilts.

The squash vine borer is very difficult to control for a couple reasons. One is the fact that it is hard to know if you have them until you see dead plants. The other reason: Once they are inside the stem of the squash plant, there is not much that can be done.

There are a couple of potential solutions. One is to mound soil around the base of the squash plant at the stem. With good growing conditions, the plant should be able to put down more roots ahead of the borer, and the infested part of the plant can be removed.

That solution can be tricky and it needs to have everything fall into place just perfectly for it to work.

Another way to try to outsmart the borers is to use their instincts. As the adults emerge they are attracted to the yellow flowers of squash. If you place yellow sticky traps or yellow bowls of soapy water in the garden, they will be more inclined to go to the traps than the actual plant.

With all that being said, the best way to beat them is to start your squash plants as early as possible. This might buy you six to eight weeks of harvest time before the borers become active.

Also, keep up with where you plant squash year after year and rotate that around so not to build up a population in your garden.

Michael Wheeler is county extension coordinator for the UGA Cooperative Extension in Hall County. Contact him at 770-535-8293. His column appears weekly and on gainesvilletimes.com/life.