I'm going to guess that birds or rabbits have stolen your seedlings.

Can't really see the little black things very well, but am going to guess that they are aphids. There has actually been some posts of black aphids in recent days right here in the web. The black bean aphid can be found commonly on a very wide range of garden plants, including everything you've mentioned.

Since you CAN see these insects, why not do a google search for some images of aphids and compare. Nothing else looks or acts like aphids but aphids.

Be careful with the vinegar solution. Vinegar can be an effective herbicide, you know. And be careful with homemade vegetable oil and dish soap solutions...such concoctions can damage plants.

Most garden pests (aka bugs) do NOT eat whole plants. You most likely have an issue with a mammal predator - rabbits, voles, groundhog, raccoon, etc. when whole plants disappear. No spray will resolve that problem.

Vinegar is used as a weed killer, not as a pesticide. When one doesn't know what they are doing and how to do it properly, using homemade concoctions can easily do far more damage than any pest does.

You have aphids on your plants. They do not "eat", they just suck juices from the leaves. They need to be treated but they are NOT the cause of your disappearing plants.

There are several effective aphid control pesticides available - both organic and synthetic - and the common homemade spray for them is 1T of dishsoap (not antibacterial) in 1 gallon of water, lightly misted (not drenched) on the bugs themselves. It can only be sprayed when the plants are out of the sun and never during the heat of the day.

Dave

Could slugs or roly-poly's be eating your seedlings? Or even earwigs? I don't think those black insects could take out a whole seedling in a night.

I have seen roly polies nestle into the tender stem of bean plants, munching away, destroying the plant.

You can try Sluggo slug/snail bait which is safe around vegetables. (Read the label.) If you have good hiding places for slugs, etc., like a rock border or under pots, lift up any hiding places to see what is there. Sorry you are having so much trouble; it's disappointing, but good you are getting some new starter plants. Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

I'm with @ socks12345 on the snails, although the roly poly angle surprised me. I always thought they were into dead matter (like mulch). Now I've got to re-think my approach with them!

The fun just never ends!

Thank you for all your help! I took some more photos and sent to a University and I'll let you know what they think as well. I'm done using homemade pesticides! Starting over I bought some starter plants instead to see how that goes but I'm afraid to plant until I figure out what's been stealing the whole plants. No sign of footprints or anything. I'm going to do some dishes with beer tonight as well to see if slugs or snails come out.

Thanks!

That last pic sure looks like rabbits to me, at least the damage I see from them. They like whole leaves and leave the stems. Do you ever see rabbits around?

IME slugs and snail damage is usually chewed leaf edges and holes but not whole leaf.

Dave

This post was edited by digdirt on Wed, May 22, 13 at 22:30

I live pretty much in a city, haven't ever seen a rabbit around. I'm uploading a photo of an ant-like bug that is all over around the dirt on the destroyed plants. A whole zuccini leaf was gone in about an hour.

You might try poking around just under the soil/mulch around the plants. Cutworms usually take down a plant at the base, but I've had them crawl up and eat the leaves, too. And I know it was the cutworm doing it because I caught him in the act. During the daytime, they'll coil up in a little circle and sleep buried just below the soil at the base of the plant they've been munching.

Although, I should say that I've lived in cities with rabbits before, so don't rule them out. Don't know what city you're in, but I've run into them in Chicago, Boston, and Houston...

Those little black bugs look like flea beetles to me. They've COMPLETELY DECIMATED my tomatoes, potatoes, beans and peppers. There are whole plants missing. Of some plants there's nothing left but a bare stem. I've never had this big of a problem with them... it's been raining too much for me to do anything. The beetles are active at all times of the day and night for me.

Abby

I agree with Dave, mammal pest is much more likely to eat a whole plant. I lived in Northern Virginia for quite a while and rabbits were a real problem, despite the heavy human population. Just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean it isn't there, especially since you haven't laid eyes on the culprit yet. :) if ants were somehow responsible, you'd see a lot more than one.

There are tons of ants around the eaten plants, crawling all over the soil. I bought some netting today and planted a new cucumber plant and covered it. So if the plant is eaten I think its safe to assume its not rabbits or birds. I am also sprinkling cayanne pepper around the base to help deter the ants. I read that aphids attract ants so is it possible that all the aphids brought the ants and the ants are eating the plants? I got some ladybugs to help with the aphids but its too windy today to free them. I live in Salt Lake City, UT.
Thanks!

As for the flea beetles, they don't move when you disturb them, no jumping or anything. I haven't found too many holes in the leaves either, just entire leaves gone.

If it's not rabbits, I vote for snails or cutworms. For snails, leave a board lying on moist soil near you garden. When you pick it up in the morning, you may find your culprit underneath. If it's snails, use Sluggo or another product with the same active ingredient. If it's cutworms, I found that planting my seeds in a cardboard tube protected them. You can make the tube protectors by cutting the cardboard tube from toilet paper or paper towels into 1 1/2 inch tube. Stick them in the soil and plant the seeds in the middle. You can place them around small seedlings as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: snails

@indystarproductions

The black bug in your one picture is a carpenter ant. Carpenter ants do not eat plants, however, carpenter ants do have a symbiotic relationship with aphids. Chances are that is your problem.

See: http://insects.about.com/od/coolandunusualinsects/f/antsandaphids.htm

Not snails/slugs. I put out a bunch of beer and not one snail or slug was in the dish. I got some ladybugs I will release tonight to help with the aphids and maybe the ant population hopefully. Local nursery thinks it might be quails eating the plants but I've never seen one. I put some netting around one new plant last night and it survived! Fingers crossed....

This is turning into quite the plant murder-mystery. No slugs. Netting helps. Quail, birds? Sounds very plausible.

Fingers crossed here, too.

I am starting to feel like Mr gopher. But when a plant disappears without a trace, it can also be gophers. Do your neighbors have holes or mounds of dirt in their lawns? Did your lawn have gophers before you removed it and put in the beds? Weed blocker will not deter gophers in the least.

In my (somewhat limited) experience, bugs and snails do not eat whole plants overnight (well, maybe slugs can eat very small seedlings with no true leaves, but even then they usually leave the main stem).

Deer are another possibility. Ever see any around where you live?

I know, I am starting to feel like a detective these days. I haven't ever seen gopher holes in my lawn or my neighbors. Or deer. We live just on the outskirts of downtown Salt Lake. I saw some paw prints this morning, about the size of a cat maybe, in a different bed but no signs of plants being eaten. Maybe the cayenne powder deterred it....

Some fairly urban areas have deer, but the people who live there see them all the time. (Monterrey for example). And gophers are highly adapted to many urban areas. They are a plague in San Francisco. Or parts of it. But usually you will see evidence of their work all throughout the neighborhood. So the mystery continues...

Neem oil may help and its organic too.

We have put birdseed out daily to attract the beautiful variety of birds in our area (Utah) and have ring necked doves and quail as the biggest population. Everything was fine for many years, then two years ago, the silly quail found an appetite for petunias and eat the down to a tub. We tried netting last year with minimal results. Now we want to find what bedding plant that flower we can plant that won't get devoured. !!!!!

I have exactly the same problem. Seedlings getting nibbled at. so the other night I went out with a flashlight and there were little black bugs all over my young spinach, radishes and lettuce. Baby earwigs, maybe? There were hundreds of them(maybe thousands). I dumped a lot of diatomatious earth around the plants which seems to slow them down but not entirely. Then it rains and gets washed away. Very discouraged- reading all the comments and no one has the answer for what these bugs are and how to effectively get rid of them! These are not ants- they look more like a short black pin or piece of lead pencil.