Peter Robinson writes
K wrote:

My experience with beans is that slugs and snails go for the stems in
preference to the leaves, felling the entire plant just above the
ground.

Interesting. Are you talking about young plants? Certainly I've lost
several young plants like that this year, but mostly, I sow in pots
inside and only plant out when they're a bit taller. Once they get
established they seem to be able to cope with a bit of 'attention'.

Young plants they go for the lot, older plants (above 18 inches) have
toughened up a bit, but they can still be taken. I haven't had any
damage on leaves of older plants, but I have had them felled. It's
infuriating to have a 6ft bean with flowers and small beans forming,
then come out one morning and find it wilting with the stem rasped three
quarters of the way through.

Sunflowers similarly - it's the stem they go for. And citrus. And young
shoots of Butchers Broom. Citrus and Butchers Broom the stems do look
more tender than the leaves, presumably the same is true (to a snail's
eyes) of french and runner beans. With other plants it's the new shoots
that are vulnerable, notably clematis (a clematis can in effect vanish
simply because any new shoot is eaten overnight before you've even seen
it), and I've just and the central shoot eaten out of an Eryngium. :-(

--
Kay