They must be hungry. My comets have never bothered my plants. Bluegills should not interbreed but they will take over. I remember someone here on this forum trying to get rid of the bluegills and it was big problem.

I'm certain it's not a rodent. It's on a high shelf in my bathroom- nothing like that could scale tile walls... such a mystery. Also noticed edges of an orchid and another succulent seem to be chewed.

Hi weirdtrev, Thank you so much -- this is really interesting! Maybe the reason I'm not finding this problem in Google is because it's really a case of pumpkin-growing-beginner cluelessness? Our sawed-off stalks do look quite a bit like the ones in your photos. Only one is long like in your photos (that's the one that had two flowers) -- the rest are quite short, only an inch or two long -- the buds had been forming very low, down under the leaves. I'm confident there were no flowers that we missed. We are growing 3 plants in one large container that we can see right out our kitchen window, and we're on the deck looking at the plants at least 1-2 times per day. Two new questions: 1) Is it possible that buds are falling off without flowering? 2) In some of your photos, I can see squashes (zucchini?) growing with flowers still attached. But in others there are the clean-break stalks where flowers fell off, but nothing growing there. I'm confused. Shouldn't they all be the same -- either the squash starts to grow right where the flower was, or the flower falls off and no squash grows there? Maybe I need a lesson in the basic way squashes and pumpkins grow. I cut off the worst of the mildew leaves but the whole plants are pretty affected -- lots of mildew on stems, too. So sad. Although there's still that one bud, so I hate to give up hope entirely!

I don't believe it to be a caterpillar at all. They look more like the larvae/pupae of a beetle...maybe a Colorado potato beetle? I wouldn't wait around for an ID, though. Yikes! Rather than experiment with a home made brew, I'd strongly suggest a spray of insecticidal soap directly on these little pests. Jean...what do you think these might be?