In article ,
Pat Kiewicz wrote:

Suzanne D. said:



"Pat Kiewicz" wrote in message
...

I also think that it sounds like you have something eating your carrot
seedlings, most likely at night. Slugs have been mentioned. (Some
areas their shelled cousins, snails might be the culprits). I'll throw
in earwigs as another.

We definitely DO have a lot of earwigs. Would they eat the seedlings even
before they emerge, though? This is what is so mystifying--that most of
the seeds don't even seem to be sprouting at all. (As opposed to, say, my
cucumbers, which sprout wonderfully but are nibbled down within a few
days by bugs.)

Hmmm...if the carrots were sprouting at night and were immediately eaten,
would you ever know it? Earwigs can be really destructive to tender sprouts.
(They are easily killed by soapy water, if hit with it directly.)

I've occasionally had problems with seed corn maggot. They wiped out
one planting of parsnips. (I actually found the a small maggot in several
parsnip seeds.) Usually they go after bigger seeds.

http://www.vegedge.umn.edu/vegpest/seedmag.htm

I'm having my best luck ever with carrots this year and I attribute it
to preparing the soil with nutrients, and having removed all litter from
the bed. The last time I grew them, my feeling was that they were eaten
by Armadillidium vulgare (Pill Bugs) which lived in the litter.
--

- Billy
"For the first time in the history of the world, every human being
is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the
moment of conception until death." - Rachel Carson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En2TzBE0lp4

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