On Thu, 30 Jun 2005 02:41:39 -0500, Jeff Walther wrote:

In article , "Lynda LeCompte"
wrote:

everything got eaten! One day there
were healthy little plants, the next there were stumps!

Unless the plants were just snipped off and the top laying near them, I'd
guess snails and/or slugs for the watermelons and sunflowers.

Hmm - I don't know. I haven't seen any slugs or snails. I was inundated
with them when I lived in England, but haven't seen any around here.
However, I know because I haven't seen them doesn't mean that their not
around! The watermelon plants disappeared altogether and the sunflower
stumps were not clean cuts, just kind of gnawed away. Last year, a whole
crop of blackberries disappeared over night too. That may have been birds
- we get a *lot* of birds with all of our trees - and that makes for good
viewing :-)

The Bugs Getta Plus will also (in addition to slugs and snails) kill
"cut-worms" which are the incredibly ugly fat gray larvae with the orange
head, which you will often see when turning soil. They will cut roots
and stems of young plants.

Aha. There was a healthy bunch of worms when I was preparing the soil and
I figured that could only be good. There may have been some of the
cut-worms but I wouldn't have taken much notice as everything over here is
new to me! I'll look into that.

If you found your plants just snipped off, then I don't know the identity
of the culprit. I wish I did. Some years I find the tops of some of my
peppers just snipped off, as with a clippers. I imagine there's some
kind
of snipping insect around that chews a very smooth cut.

That was a neighbor with a low pantry ;-)

Thanks for the help!