Can I save my cukes & zucchini? They've got WORMS!

After TS Christobal came through I noticed my Armenian cukes looked wilted at the tips. At first I thought the winds had broken them - but we didn't get much wind. When I harvested my latest cukes from my dual-purpose cukes I noticed they had some holes with white mush in them. I began exploring the vines & found 1 cm pale yellow-green worms with tiny brown banding & little hard gelantinous piles of eggs on undersides of cuke leaves on both kinds of vines. I cut out all the wilted vines about 12 inches back from wilt & smooshed all the worms I could find. Scraped the eggs wherever I found them & sprayed with a couple T Dawn detergent in a quart of water. This seems to have burned some of the leaves but the worms didn't like it (close satisfying scrutiny). I also found some rot at the ends of my zukes - I cut into that & found larger lime green grub-like things - which I smushed & hit the zukes with detergent water. What do I do now? My Armenian cukes look terible in 3 days time & my dual purpose cuke's fruits are being drilled to smoosh. Do I give up? Replant? I am in Wilmington, NC, so I think the season may be long enough to replant but this is so disheartening. Any advice would be appreciated.

You have the dreaded pickle worm. I know of no remedy once the fruits are infested. They are extremely difficult to control even before this stage. They arrive here about the the first of July so I try to have most of my susceptible crops (squash, cucumbers, cantaloupes) out by then. I will do late squash in September when they seem to have headed back to Florida. The insecticide endosulfan is recommended for them, but I have not found it that effective.
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/Cucurbit/insect/insect1/insect1.4.html
http://www.bonnieplants.com/ProblemSolving/CommonPests/tabid/95/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/42/Pickleworms.aspx

Thank you Farmer Dill. Argh, I thought this was a lethal infestation. I'll pull vines this pm & melt them in my trusty 5 gallon bucket. The vines I cut yesterday went into the bucket & were covered with water - they foamed from the DAWN (LOL). I hope the sun & submersion in the water will kill the buggers. Is replanting a bad proposition? What can I do other than plant early & late to stop this invasion if replanting or for next year?
A final question - what is that thing in my zucchini? Larger, wetter, greener than the pickle worms. I suspect it is lethal too.
Maybe will stick with basil, peppers, beans & tomatoes if I can't whip these mushy monsters.

You might check with your county agent as to the approximate arrival times in your area. They don't overwinter so you you don't have to worry on that score. I plant cukes and summer squash first to mid April. The first flight of pickle worms arrive just as the crop is finishing. Works out fine as they don't attack cantaloupes once they start netting or winter squash once the rinds harden. They like baby fruits. A bout the 15th of August, I will start a late crop of squash, usually get away with it.

Man oh man you hit the nail on the head with your pics! That would be the one. Just came from tearing out the dying cukes & threw them away instead of composting them. Today was the day for larvae in the garden - I found a bright green-yellow bodies worm with a black head in my bean leaves - about 2 cm long & very wriggly. Acted like it might bite even though the round black head didn't have visible pincers, it promptly got cut in 1/2 &, oh horrors, it bled BLACK! Yuck! Didn't locate another with a pretty careful inspection & the beans look healthy - so fingers crossed.
The tomatoes with are 5 to 7 feet tall had some denuded ends - found 4 6 -8 cm long jade green caterpillars with pseudo-eyes and white stripes along their sides. They look remarkably like a curled tomato leaf until you notice the eyes... then the manatee-like head... munching...They also have 4 sets of pod feet which they use to hang on tight to the tomato stems. They munch like cows - slow & steady - oh, did I mention the red tipped soft spine off their lower backs? Good Lord, too many worms today. The tomato worms met their demise as well once I confirmed they were really munching my plants. I am cool with all the parasitic & ground wasps, crickets, cow ants, p*ss ants though I prefer the bumblebees, honeybees (none around here), ladybugs, praying mantises & toads in the garden. Hmmm, gotta see if I can feed some of the tomato caterpillars to the toads - b/c I am certain there will be more.

All the surface eating worms, tomato worms, hornworms, army worms are easily handled with Bt, (Dipel or Thuricide) . Its those inside worms like borers and pickleworms that are hard to handle.

I discovered I had pickleworms on my cukes. Do they only attack the fruits or do they attack the vines too?

Mostly the fruits.