something is eating my runner beans!!!!

smithyjules

My runner bean plants are coming on nicely but the bottom leaves have a strange white wiggly pattern on them and some holes too.I have searched the whole of each plant and cannot find any critters so what to do??!!!

Will this have any effect on any beans that might (fingers, toes and eyes crossed) appear in the future?am a bit of a newbie to this and was so happy they were shooting up!!

Help!

babyblooz

Is it a shimmery wiggly pattern, cos if it is it sounds like the slugs in my garden! They have eaten a big hole in one of mine.

rhiwfield

Almost certainly slugs' slime trails and feeding damage. Once they "find" a plant they usually return to it so expect damage to worsen. Lots of threads here on how to beat slugs.

(If the patterns on the leaf were internal then it would be a leaf miner)

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there

If it is lines actually IN the leaves -turn them over and have a look at the end of the lines -if you see a little bump -its actually a bug/grub ..... I can't remember what they are called -Im sure someone will tell you in a moment
I had some last year -I popped them out and squished them -my plants didn't really suffer for it -but it was chard and the like where I had them.
hope that is some help

EDIT -There you go -rhiwfield knows what they are called -

Larumbelle

Sounds like leaf miners to me - take a look at the picture on this link and see if it looks like what you mean: http://www.planetnatural.com/site/xdpy/kb/leafminer-control.html

If it does, there's plenty of advice on that page Usually if you catch it early enough, just squishing them or carefully removing affected leaves is enough. To be honest the miners themselves don't do too much damage, but they make the plant more susceptible to infection by other diseases.

smithyjules

silvercharming wrote: »

Sounds like leaf miners to me - take a look at the picture on this link and see if it looks like what you mean: http://www.planetnatural.com/site/xdpy/kb/leafminer-control.html

Silvercharming...THATS IT!!!!right am off out to the garden right now armed and dangerous, little bleeders get off my beans!!!!!he he

thanks for the advice, must go squishing now, would it be morally wrong to get my 2 year old involved in the sport??!!