What's eating my plans?

Recently I put down some bedding plants and shrubs in my garden. All looked well until about a week ago, when I returned from a week away, I noticed that something had been nibbling away at some of the plants. One about 1/2 of the plants, something has nibbled away at the leaves. Some plants were effectively stripped right back to the stems.

The affected plants are Busy Lizzies (the red petals being most affected) and in particular Chrysanthemum Roses (the plants that have been completely stripped back are these). I have also some Hydrangea shrubs (which so far seem virtually unaffected) and Pittosporum 'Silver Queen' shrubs (seemingly completely unaffected).

All the plants are in one flower bed which was filled up with general purpose compost. I don't see anything crawling on the plants (except spiders) and I don't see any eggs or anything on the leaves. The only beasties I see are tiny creatures crawling around the flower bed (less than 1mm in length).

The photo shows the badly affected Chrysanthemums and one of the Busy Lizzies.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what might be doing this, and more importantly, how to stop it?

Thanks,
Jon

 

Probably slugs or snails, would be my guess.

 

If it is indeed slugs or snails, is there any tell tale signs? I have to admit I don't really remember seeing any crawling around the garden before, though I've never really been looking out for them (only really got round to sorting the garden this summer).

Thanks

 

Slime, but only sometimes, can be a sign.
But if you get some organic slug pellets and scatter them very thinly, and I mean thinly, the next day will tell the truth.
Slime will be very easy to see.

 

Ok, thanks. I'll give the slug pellets a go and I'll keep a close eye out for slugs or slime.

I'll report back with my findings!

Cheers

 

Slug pellets harm wildlife and are said to be not that effective. A quick check around early evening (or when it has been raining) is a good time to catch any slugs/snails...if this is the cause.

 

Following Pete's advice I had a closer look and I spotted a slug and some slime yesterday morning, so I ventured out yesterday evening and found the bamboo matting by the plants was crawling with slugs and snails. I picked a good couple of dozen of them up and chucked them away.

In hindsight it's obvious - the bamboo matting is on the back wall, and is the perfect dark and damp place for them. I basically built accommodation for them and then laid on a free buffet :/

I don't really want to put down loads of potentially nasty slug pellets, but since they're all coming from the one direction (from the bamboo) I might be able to get away with one pellet barrier. I don't really want to rely on going out at dusk regularly to pick them up by hand.

 

I'm interested to see the advice you get. I've discovered a mass of slugs the past few days and a few of my plants are beginning to look similar.

 

If you want a kind and environmental friendly deterrent try this... You can put this around the pants or spray your bamboo parimiter to stop them hiding

Cedarwood, Hyssop, and Pine are the best essential oils for keeping gastropods off of your plants. Mix about a teaspoon of your chosen oil(s) in a spray bottle filled with water. Apply diluted oil in a ring around plants where slugs and snails like to visit. Just re squirt the area after any rain

 

I would'nt want you to put anything around my Pants

 

Hi everyone,

I came back to this forum for another reason, but realised I didn't follow up on my last post here, so I thought I'd say where I got to with this.

Thanks for the tip AppleBlossom - I'll give that a go next year!

I tried some slug pellets (Eraza) and put some of them down. It seemed to work, together with picking up and disposing of any slugs or snails I found - the number of slugs gradually declined until I'd only find one or two when I checked, rather than the dozens I saw that first evening I went out to look! The plants that were left managed to survive, though next year I think I'll be more careful and try to pick plants they can't/won't eat. If I put the same kind of plants in the garden again (the Busy Lizzies were really nice and colourful) I plan to put them in pots that I can move away from Slug Central (the bamboo wall)!

 

oh, you mean PLANTS, not PLANS. ok got it.

 

Ha! Very true - I already have problems with my plans for the garden without slugs eating away at them too!