Pure Eeevil!

I was beginning to question my gardening abilities. I'd tried blaming the weather, the dirt, the kids, even the seeds! Deep down, though, I knew that none of these things were the real reason my beans were not growing.

The only thing left to blame was myself.

I had planted and re-planted my bean seeds and finally, when I saw the little bean shoots starting to emerge, I got very excited. I checked on my babies repeatedly through out the day.

Then...THEN, I discovered that my tender little plants were under attack when they were most vulnerable. Just when the shoots put out their first leaves, some creature was sneaking up and decapitating them, leaving a tiny little stem stub behind. Plant by plant, my baby beans were dying.

I thought it might be slugs and considered putting out crushed sea shells around the growing area to discourage those slimy gastropods. But I couldn't see any evidence of slugs and sometimes the planticide was happening in broad daylight when slugs are supposedly asleep.

Then I turned over a clod of dirt and discovered pill bugs devouring an emerging bean plant. Unfortunately for that bean, I'd discovered those little twerps too late. But I thought it might not be too late to save the others.

I googled and found many gardeners had the same exact problem. However, I found very few realistic solutions. "Get a toad," was one. Others said to provide the bugs with other organic matter and that maybe they would choose that over your tender little plants. Then there was a big disagreement about whether or not pill bugs were beneficial for the garden or simply a blight to be wiped out.

I was really looking for a soultion I could whip up with household items that would dissolve every last one of my pill bug invaders from the inside out!

I will make a trip to the nursery tomorrow to find out if they have a product I can use to kill--yes, that's right, KILL--those little buggers. Until then, I've sprinkled the area with sand because supposedly that will dry out the pill bugs and kill them. I don't believe it. I need to see results now! My beans are at stake (literally!).