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insect problem
gerald wallis
Posts: 26
in Plants
I am growing chillies in my greenhouse which is "insect proof" - concrete floor, no holes in the walls etc. raised beds,pots on shelves and so on. The soil comes out bags. I continuously check for slugs and snails etc and rarely find any. Yet every now and then there is a leaf massacre. So what else is there that can be doing this, it must be something that flies, there are never any trails. Any ideas anyone?
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That does sound like slugs or snails - I find them hiding under pots, under the rims of seed trays etc - often very tiny slugs that just fit into tiny spaces. Goodness knows where they come from but they lurk everywhere - lift things up and look underneath
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thanks for the reply. Yes I do that every day and I look carefully for tiny slugs. I've even emptied out the pots of destroyed plants and looked through the soil to see if they are buried there. So far nothing. I saw another forum where somebody suggested it was ants, I see a few ants around but I can't imagine they'd do that amount of damage and I've never seen then on plants. No sign of spider mites either.
Can you show us a photo of the damage?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Can do if you wish but I can describe it easily... small stems with no leaves. Thanks for your interest. G
Ants don't eat plants they might be in the pot but don't do that sort of damage. There most be some critter lurking somewhere that is eating them.
Can you you move the remains
to a different part of the GH staging and see if it continues.