How to Sex a Squash

Have you ever wondered how to tell the difference between male and female squash flowers?  Have you been perplexed as to why your squash flowers shrivel and die without making fruit?  Look no further!  Behold, the miracle of Cucurbita reproduction!

Here you see a male flower, laden with pollen.  These should pop up on the plant first.  If you have no female flowers on your plant, just pick these male flowers and fry 'em up.  If you only ever get this type of flower (which happened with my Galeux d'Eysines squash 2 years ago), you'll never get fruit.  I haven't a clue what causes this.

Male:  thin and dusty.

The following is a female flower. 
There will also be a slight bulge at the base of the flower, where fruit will form if you're lucky.  If these flowers are just falling off after blooming, and there is a disturbing lack of bees in your garden, try pollinating with a q-tip from the male flowers... this method rescued my failing zucchini two years ago.  It can be helpful to grow multiple squash of the same type close together, so that there is always pollen available.

Female:  thick and smooth.

Maybe this is obvious... but when I had squash problems, I had no clue that they were supposed to make two types of flowers.  This year our papaya pear squash has been reproducing like crazy, and I have finally been able to see the process in action.  

Have you ever had to hand-pollinate your plants?