Something is eating my courgette flowers

[ProperVexed]

Any ideas? The flowers grow beautifully but then I find then laying beneath the plant having been chomped or snapped off. No damage to leaves or the flower apart from the break. The same thing happened earlier in the spring with my peony. I'm getting cross!

Could be slugs or snails. I've noticed the tell-tale slime trails on the nibbled flowers on my pumpkins and courgette. Are you losing the flowers before pollination?

Do you have squirrels?

Is this before or after they've opened? They usually open for just one day.

What? My courgette flowers open for ages, and are often left on the end of the courgette until it's half grown. Various different plants.

It's always slugs here, except when it's clumsy mammals brushing past.

My courgette flowers open for ages, and are often left on the end of the courgette until it's half grown. Mine grow for several days, then have one day when they're wide open with pollen (or with receptive stigma), then a few days when they're no longer fertile but the petals haven't yet died, and it's at this stage when they can be knocked off easily.

It may be a temperature thing - I grow in the greenhouse as it's a slug-free zone. Or it may be that we have different definitions of "open".

Hi. Thanks for all suggestions. I think they are coming off before they open. I have squirrels, foxes and badgers passing through. It is just one courgette plant in a large pot so the flowers are within the pot and unlikely to be knocked. I can't see any slimy trails but I'll have another look first thing tomorrow. I have just ordered two courgettes from Sainsbury's so at least I'll be able to eat some!

Mine are doing this too. One of the buds did it when I turned my back with no evidence of predatory life forms. I suspect it might be that the plant isn't totally happy and keeps changing its mind about flowering. Not enough/too much water light food heat? I've not worked it out yet and google was unusually unhelpful.

I've got pumpkins which are basically the same, right? My understanding is that the plant can start to produce female flowers, but then decide better of it and give up before they open so they turn yellow and fall off instead. I've got many more female flowers that have done that than have actually opened (which the internet tells me isn't unusual). I've got one fruit on each of my six vines now - I think they are all putting effort into those at the moment rather than trying to create new fruits.

Olaf that's presumably why you're encouraged to pick courgettes while they're small, before the plant gets carried away with success and decides it doesn't need to make any more fruits.

Of course, you can leave the courgettes to get large, and end up with just one or two marrows. The other name for courgettes, zuccini, is the diminutive if squash in Italia, so, "little squashes", and I've just checked, smae in French - courge is the French for squash.