If you can see the craters of pulled up plants, obviously it won't be slugs. At any rate, just going through the garden at 10pm with a flashlight will give you an exact count of your slugs (their mucus makes them shiny, and very easy to spot on the ground and in the foliage). Given the level of destruction, and lack of tracks, I vote for groundhogs. Remediation: 1) check around the perimeter for entry points at the base of the fence. My fence never really worked until I put down chainlink horizontally, 2 inches deep, and tied to the vertical fence. I was getting rabbits under the fence. 2) for those who try to go over the fence (including deer), electric fence a few inches below the top is the only solution. You only need to keep it up a few days. They will remember for the rest of their life. Search the site about electric fences.

Integrated Pest Management This lecture is presented in two parts. Each part is 90-minutes in length. Recorded in Sacramento County in California's Sacramento Valley, this lecture is by Mary Louise Flint, Ph.D., Director, IPM Education and Publications, UC Statewide IPM Project and Extension Entomologist & Cooperative Extension Specialist. Education: B.S. Plant Science, University of California, Davis Ph.D. Entomology, University of California, Berkeley Appointment: 100% Cooperative Extension Research Interests: Integrated pest management of landscape, agricultural and garden pests; biological control of arthropod pests; alternatives to pesticides; adoption of alternative practices by practitioners; innovative delivery of pest management information. Topics discussed in the Integrated Pest Management Lecture: * IPM references and resources * Preventing pest problems * Natural common enemies * Making less toxic pesticide choices * Controlling aphids, scales, caterpillars, coddling moths, tree borers, snails and slugs, and lawn insects. You can watch the programs now online: Just make sure you have Real Player installed or download it free. Integrated Pest Management Part1 90 minutes Integrated Pest Management Part 2 90 minutes You'll want to bookmark the following link to Professor Flint's Lab Research on: Controlling Pests in Gardens and Landscapes: Vegetables and Melons I promise you'll learn one or two things to put in your gardening bag of pest management arsenals. ;) If you type in leafminers in the search engine, it will take you to their page on How to Manage Pests: Leafminers page.

'I would *think* it would have a fairly shallow and uncomplicated root system.' In my experience mature chard plants have huge tap roots. Sometimes I have real trouble pulling the old plants out at the end of the season. (In my climate that is in the second year when they have seeded to provide me with a constant supply of self growing chard.) I also think that transplanting would encourage earlier bolting. But it would be an interesting experiment.

The following is information taken from a Rotonone instructional publication - "Rotonone acts as a stomach poison and as a contact insecticide. Not toxic to honeybees, but will kill some beneficial insects. Registered for use against most chewing insects on many vegetables and some fruits. Different brands and formulas are available for various pests. Both liquid and dust are available commercially. It has been fatal to mammals if inhaled over extended periods. Rotenone is effective against a wide range of insects and has a short residual life." Used properly, it is organic, highly effective and safe. It breaks down quickly and plants are safe to eat in a day or two. Hand picking infected leaves is a big job, especially if you have a large planting, and highly ineffective because once you see leaf damage from "leaf miners' they are already wide spread. Row covers are effective if used early enough, but if you have to plant under row covers to get a crop, you might just as well plant in a greenhouse. Part of the enjoyment I get from gardening is watching my plants grow and prosper. Somehow, row covers taks a lot of that away for me. Rotonone acts as a stomach poison and as a contact insecticide. Not toxic to honeybees, but will kill some beneficial insects. Registered for use against most chewing insects on many vegetables and some fruits. Different brands and formulas are available for various pests. Both liquid and dust are available commercially. It has been fatal to mammals if inhaled over extended periods. Rotenone is effective against a wide range of insects and has a short residual life.