Slugs will eat anything,

My guess is it's not 'bugs in the compost' specifically, but bugs (slugs?) in your soil. Slugs love compost. Ever tried Sluggo? Gary

Don't give in ! !
You have plenty of time left, go purchase plants that are already a good size, hopefully they will survive (because of their size) the bug onslaught, plus , go out at night with a pair of scissors and cut every slug you find in half, sometimes you need to go out at the break of dawn to catch them.

In my garden I have found four main culprits eating tender seedlings:
Roly Polys
slugs
snails
earwigs

When they get big enough and tough enough these critters will generally not be able to eat them as fast as they can grow, then grasshoppers take over.

I have read that earthworms will also eat tender seedlings and seeds.

Wow thanks you guys! You've definitely given me a lot to think about. I will try to buy some big plants and get some slug bait. I think it could be Roly Polys too. I've seen a lot of those in the compost. The mint that I planted as a bigger plant is doing fine (although mint generally does well no matter what,) so maybe that will work! Thank you so much for giving me new hope for my garden. I was so discouraged before.

It could also be birds. The birds in my garden like to tease me. They sometimes will bite the leaves off a new okra seedling, decide it is not to their taste and fly off, with the ripped off leaves sitting right their next to the stem, taunting me, saying nananana!

roly polys are scavengers which eat dead plant material. The have a bad rap because of false accusations.

Good, because before this, roly polys were my favorite bugs, so I hope it isn't them. Yes, it could very well be birds, there are a lot around our yard. I saw a bluejay dive bombing my cat the other day. I think getting bigger plants would fix the bird problem too. They don't like eating most grown up plants right?

Roly Polys, Sow Bugs, Pill Bugs, Wood Lice, the Isopods feed mainly on decaying vegetative waste, but they are known to also feed on living plants although they seldom cause significant damage to living plants. Like many other scavangers they like cool, moist living conditions, much like organic gardeners/farmers create with the good soil conditions we create. This link is a good source of informaiton about them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Roly Polys, Sow Bug, the Isopods

Sow bugs in my garden regularly abandon delicious decaying organic matter in the abundant compost to eat leaves--both young and mature. Sorry it's a bit blurry, but here are bunches of them on well-eaten adult potato leaves, and below you'll see the compost they bred in and climbed out of. It's worse with young sprouts. I feel your pain.

{{gwi:295078}}

The presence of Pill Bugs on a plant with damage does not indicate they are responsible for that damage. Many times someone has come here concerned that this insect was destroying their plants only to learn the insect in question was a beneficial that was eating the insect that might well be destroying the plant.
As the people that spend years studying insects have stated these Isopods seldom do any real damage to living plants.

If there is any silver lining to the dry weather we have had these past few weeks, it is that the slugs haven't been as active as they normally are.

I still make it a point to go slug hunting every evening around 10PM. I'm not sure how much good I'm actually doing, but the sinister side of me does get a charge out of salting the few slugs and snails that I do find in my garden.

I've heard of the slug traps and deterrents, but never really tried any.

Beer n yeast in a shallow dish
Cornmeal
Coffee grounds
Sand paper
Wrap the young plant stems in plastic drinking straws
Bait

Stale beer, which has a very yeasty odor, is what to use in a shallow saucer trap in the garden.
Supposedly the slugs, or snails, ingest the cornmeal which then swells up inside them and plugs their digestive system. if that happened with them it would also happen with you and since it does not happen in you it won't happen in slugs, snails, ants, or any other insect.
One explanation of how coffee grounds is supposed to work is that as the slugs or snails crawl over the coffee grounds it cuts their bodies. I have seen slugs crawl over coffee grounds many times and they did not leak body fluids afterwards and die, but went about the business that slugs and snails go about. I have also seen these wee buggers crawl over sandpaper with no problem.
The only time I saw anything about using plastic drinking straws in ther garden was a suggestion they could be used as collars to deter cutworms. If those straws were not removed soon enough they could choke the growing plant.
Baits, containing Iron Phosphate, do work although they can be sxpensive.

I've heard of people using egg shells to hurt snails attempting to enter your garden..never tryed it though but I guess your suppose to create a barrier around the garden. We eat chicken eggs a lot and have always tosses the shells away. Also I've had plants growing in pots and saw slugs living under the pots only to make an appearance in the cool misty morning. Also for anyone needing a good fertilizer try blackstrap molasses this is extremely beneficial and you can eat it too so who doesn't want a non toxic fertilizer plant food! You can use it as a foliar spray and when applied like this the nutrients and minerals are available immediately. Also 100% natural mineral "Epsom salt" is terrific for plants. You can even use goat milk and spray it on your plant leaves as a foliar fertilizer but you need to use RAW "unpasteurized" milk in any form will do weather it be powered milk or regular drinking milk, this provides calcium to the plants so they can achieve their max potential. Research this stuff yourself and make sure you get your salts or molasses or whatever at a health food store! Its better to under feed than to over feed and a HEALTHY plant will have no problem tolerating occasional pests such such as slugs leaf eating insects and more. Neam oil is a great ORGANIC fertilizer and it tricks the bugs into thinking their full so they stop eating your plant and stop eating entirely until death!! If you want a plant to be able to fight off diseases and pests and yield lots of food or simply pretty flowers to admire their is one nutrient for the job and that is POTASSIUM! It is high in blackstrap molasses as well as a lot of other nutrients and minerals.