Slugs ate my lettuce!

[ldunbar]

I planted some lettuce a few weeks ago and it was doing great...until last night. I woke to find most of it had been eaten by what I'm assume are slugs or something similar. The outer most leaves have been left intact, but the younger newer leaves have all been eaten. Is it worth keeping what's left and hoping they regrow or getting rid of what's left and starting again with enhanced security?

[burnie]

If you have room go for both, the slimey critters get everywhere, so I try growing in pots and get them off the ground, setting slug beer traps work if you don't mind sacrificing a bit of beer.

[Bren In Pots]

I agree with Burnie do both, it’s best if you can sow a few lettuce seeds every couple of weeks for a continual supply.

[Mr Bones]

Agree with the above. Slugs seem attracted to weak plants so once they've had a go they tend to return.

[Bonjour]

I planted out a load of lettuce seedlings a week or so ago and forgot to put down slug pellets. They were planted early evening and by next morning two had completely disappeared, eaten right to the ground! Others had some damage. I put down pellets and there was snail carnage the next evening. No further loss or damage. This evening, I was amazed to notice that both the seedlingss that had been totally eaten at planting time were re-sprouting leaves from the roots!

Moral of the story is that lettuces are amazingly tough, so there's a good chance yours will re-sprout too, but planting some more as insurance might be a good plan too.