Somethings eating my butternut squash plants

[paxosisland]

Hello again everyone
I`ve succeeded in growing some butternut squash plants from seed. I started them off in little pots and now I`ve put them in the garden. Unfortunately, something is eating them. I`ve put slug pellets down but they are still beng eaten. Any ideas on what I can do to stop this. Thanks in advance for your help
Jeannie

[Two_Sheds]

Probably is snails or slugs. They don't always go for pellets, esp. if you scatter too many down

[chris]

I'd say slugs/snails too - they ate the flowers of mine then the developing fruit last year. The only way I had fruit was doing a week of after-dark raids on them. Torch + a pair of scissors espeically for snipping slugs in half.

I think Two Sheds goes around with a bucket of salty water and chucks them in there, then down the drain after? I used to feel bad about killing so many, now it's part of my routine

[Vagetarian]

You can put something around the base of the stem to stop them getting up into the leaves, you can buy products specifically for it although I'm sure you could make something yourself very easily.

I've been led to believe that used coffee grounds is a good deterrent and unused grounds will kill them (highly acidic).

[Kiwi_Soph]

how big are they? I cut the tips off old fizzy drink bottles and put the large part over the plants at night when they were small, taking it off in the day time to let them stretch and breathe. Helped get them to the 4 or 5 leaf stage - they are too big for the bottles now but they also are big enough to (hopefully) recover from a slugging or two.

I forgot to do one of the pumpkins one night and it got slugged but the others haven't been touched.



So far, that is!

[paxosisland]

Thanks everyone