Sounds like what I had last year....bean beetles.

Try looking under the leaves at the hooter part of the day, between noon and about 2:00. Look for something that looks similar to a ladybug.

If you find them, knock them off into a shotglass half full of water and a squirt of dishsoap. Try to get as many as you can over the course of a few days.

LOL!

"Hooter" should be "hotter"

I've got the same thing with my bean leaves, but they've moved on to my broccoli and cauliflower. There the damage is worse. I've been told the culprets could either be slugs/snails or cutworms. I checked tonight right after dark and found nothing. If this keeps up they'll eat the entire plants!

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden adventure!

Thank you for those tips! I will try to check for the bean beetles, but I work during the day so I'm not sure when I'll be able to check during that time frame. Could I use some kind of cover to protect them from the beetles, if that is in fact the cause? I have seen 3 slugs in the garden this year and removed them all, so I guess that could be a possibility as well. I have also found a couple beetles, I'm not sure what kind they are, that are about 1/2'' long and solid black. Does anyone know what that could be, and if it could be the thing eating my green beans?

Thanks!!

Well I caught them! It turns out to be the Bean Leaf Beetle. I caught about 15 of them into my bucket of soapy water last night. This link says they lay eggs in the soil which hatch in 1-3 weeks, and then the larvae eat the roots of the plant! Does anyone know some organic controls for use on this pest?

Here is a link that might be useful: Info on Bean Leaf Beetle

Something is also eating my bush bean leaves. I planted 30 plants on Monday and on several of them (mainly the right side of my garden), the leaves are almost entirely eaten away. Some leaves have a shiny, silvery substance on them. Is that from slugs?? I thought slugs were too heavy to climb up the delicate stems??? My neighbor gave me a can of beer and I poured it in some tuna cans at ground level in the garden. I pray this helps! This has never happened before. HELP!

Veggieholic,

I just kept knocking them into a glass with water and a bit of soap to kill them. After doing this every day for a week or two, their population was low enough that my plants were able to recover and thrive.

This year I will catch them early so the damage won't be as bad in the first place.

I went out lastnight with a flashlight and could not believe my eyes! There were slugs....EVERYWHERE!!!I always thought slugs were big and about as big as my thumb, but these were baby ones all over my bean leaves! Tiny, gray, slimy critters the size of my pinkie nail! I picked them all off and put them in the beer trap (which was already filled with slugs)! About 4 of my plants are totally destroyed, and the rest all have bite holes, but hopefully if I go out everynight I can kill the rest!

Veggieholic - try sprinkling Diatomaceous Earth on the surface of the soil under the plants. It's totally non-toxic. It looks like soft flour to you, but to beetles it's broken glass. It works under their carapace and dehydrates them to death.

Dawnie - get some Sluggo brand slug/snail killer, or any of the other brands that show IRON PHOSPHATE as the active ingredient. It is non-toxic to pets and children, and only seems to kill slugs and snails (and very well, too). It breaks down into soil nutrients.

Sue

Thanks Sue!
I just called the garden center where my daughter works and she is bringing me home SLUGGO! I bought some stuff today at Walmart called "Eliminator - Snail & Slug Bait", but the active ingredient is not what you recommended. It is Metaldehyde and Tetraoxycyclo-octain and it says it is fatal to dogs or other pets. ( I did not read that when I bought it!). So if it's fatal to pets, I sure don't want it around the veggies we EAT or in the same yard as my precious Samoyed!!! I will use the Sluggo as soon as she gets home!

You know I have the same problem so I went out to buy some organic pesticide. Well, the pesticide burnt the hell out of my leaves and now I'm looking at having to start all over again :(

I wish I had know about Sluggo. I'll try looking for that in the nursery.

Matthew08

Well, the SLUGGO has been administered this evening! I had my daughter hold the flashlight while I sprinkled away! I had several baby slugs on three of my already demolished plants - the leaves were almost non-existent, so I don't know what they were feeding on....so I pulled them up, but my daughter suggested I leave the plants in the garden so hopefully the slugs that do come out to feed will eat on the already dead plants! Oh, and my beer trap is FILLED with slugs! Eeeeewww!

Remember there are alternatives to help decrease slugs. Move any wood piles or other places that are cool and wet for them to hide under. Crushed egg shells, strips of copper surrounding the garden and/or rings made from plastic bottles will help protect against slugs. And if you are using beer bait, put it in the opposite direction of what you what to protect.

Fountaam,
My woodpile is in the back of the yard far away from my garden so that is not the problem, but my green bean plot is on the side of my deck where we store things and slugs may live under there because it's damp! What do you mean by 'rings made from plastic bottles? Also, what would you do with them?? I actually have the beer bait cans IN the garden in the center of the rows. Should I remove them and put them in the grass outside the garden? Thanks! Dawn

I can honestly say that SLUGGO is amazing!!!!! I put it in my garden with immediate results. I pulled out the nasty chewed up plants, took the holey leaves off the others and planted 6 new plants then sprinkled SLUGGO around the border of my garden and between the rows and the base of the plants and have seen NO slugs! This stuff is GREAT!

I've planted kentucky wonder green beans for two years and this year they are very tough-not at all tender! help please

The leaves on my youngest plants are totally gone and the others (I planted from seed)have very large holes and pieces missing.
I'm thinking rabbits more than beetles or slugs?

If I can figure out how to make Diatomaceous earth, maybe I'll try that.
Other ideas?

Try crushed egg shells. You can buy Diatomaceous Earth at nurseries. Concern makes one.

Diatomaceous Earth is also sold for pool filters, and it's usually much cheaper when packaged for filter use than when packaged for garden use. Same stuff, different package, different marketing, very different price!

I don't think anyone has suggested earwigs. They usually eat decaying matter, but will eat young plant leaves. I think I solved my green bean leaf eating problem.
Earwigs! I was told to use the damp rolled up newspaper method to irradicate earwigs (on a different site and different problem. I personally used 7 dust. (no patience)

could it be both beetle and earwig? Probably unlikely though. Maybe either/or.