Pumpkin Seed germination

Hi All,
I'm catching up on a month of digests and have just read a few messages
related to the Southern hemisphere and regarding seed germination in SA,
so I apologize for the lateness of my replies.
Our (husband and I) experience with seed has been random. We purchased
seed from Howard Dill and had very disappointing results - less than 50%
germinated. Thanks to Mike in Oregon who very kindly sent us some seeds
(after I bitched about the poor germination on the list!). Twelve of the
thirteen seeds he sent germinated and a few have died as a result of
unseasonably hot and dry weather shortly after transplanting, but there
are still enough growing to give us a darn good shot at growing a BIG
one this year! The seed Mike sent was from  '94, '95 and '96 and we
didn't freeze it before planting or anything like that - just planted
them as soon as they arrived. I'm not sure what this says about seed
from the Northern hemisphere growing in the south - except that Mike
obviously stores his seed better than Dill does!
Regarding problems that pumpkin growers in South Africa face - the
biggest by far in our case has been the dreaded pumpkin fly. A nasty
little bug that "stings" the tiny fruit just after setting and lays its
eggs through the soft skin. These eggs sit there for a while and then
hatch and the larvae have a lovely big pumpkin to feed them until they
burrow their way out leaving a rotting carcass behind. I hate them as
they destroy not only the pumpkins but also the marrows, melons and any
other curcubit that we try to grow. The only effective way to control
them is to spray regularly with nasty poisons. A bait of sugar, fruit
juice and the same poison can be scattered over the leaves instead of
spraying the fruit, but isn't as effective as the spray unfortunately.
If any growers have alternative suggestions that avoid the use of
poisons I'd love to hear them. 
The other problems are generally caused by our weather - extreme heat
and drought which causes wilting and the slowing down of growth or days
of wet, wet, wet which result in powdery mildew or sudden hailstorms
which damage young fruit badly.
That's all for now,
Cheers
Sue in SA

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