# something is eating our green beans and lima beans



## neurochicken (Aug 9, 2011)

Something has eaten all the leaves off our green beans, and is working on the leaves of the lima beans. We found black worm poop all around the green beans, so we're pretty sure it's something like that, rather than rabbits or birds. No damage to our squash or tomatoes whatsoever. I put cracked egg shells all around the plants (because I vaguely remember hearing this somewhere?), but I don't know what else to do. I did find a little inch long, thin caterpillar thing on one of the limas yesterday evening, but I find it hard to believe this creature was wholly responsible for the destruction of our green beans. It was green and had two black lines on its back. Not obviously a horn worm (or whatever it's called- the thing that loves tomatoes), way too small and didn't have the same markings. 

Any thoughts as to what this could be? And any suggestions on what to do? The aphids are now attacking the trimmed plants, so we need to do something about them, too. My Dad suggested Sevin Dust, but I don't think this is considered organic and we want to do organic as much as possible. 

Sorry, I'm pretty sure these are very newbie questions. I did search the forum and couldn't find anything that seemed to address this (but I did learn a lot about other stuff!)


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## dfr1973 (Apr 19, 2012)

My two neighbors took at look at my mangled bean plants (and also tomato plants, potato plants, and even the acorn squash) and said it was 100% aphids doing the massive damage.

One neighbor suggested sacrificing cigarette tobacco, the other said to go with lime. I've tried both, and while each has slowed the damage ... there's still more holes chewed into the leaves!

Whatever is doing it, it doesn't seem to be overly picky. Even the weeds in the yard have holes all over them.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Diatomaceous earth will kill insects feeding on your beans and is considered organic. Dust some on making sure you get the undersides of the leaves too. You'll have to reapply after each rain but just a few days of dusting should knock down the population of damaging critters. The crushed egg shells are supposed to keep slug off the plants.

It could be slugs or sow bugs too. My vote would be on the sow bugs. I have seen them wipe out a whole bed of radish seedlings in a few hours.


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## dfr1973 (Apr 19, 2012)

After last night's storm, I went out to find little reddish-purple bugs swarmed over the new blossom clusters ... a quick google image search shows these are indeed aphids eating *my* plants. I've been reading about how to combat them off and on all day.

Cuss-worthy.


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## mooman (May 19, 2008)

water with a healthy squirt of dish detergent will take care of aphids. It dissolves thier waxy cuticle and causes them to dehydrate and die.


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## neurochicken (Aug 9, 2011)

Thanks for the thoughts. We most certainly do have aphids, but there's no holes, there's just NOTHING. Except for a sad little stalk sticking out of the ground. Oh, and they've now (1) wiped out our entire green bean crop, (2) nibbled on our cucumbers, (3) and taken a couple of onions. I'm starting to think we've got a multi-factorial problem here, with aphids and maybe a rabbit or two. We know we have rabbits in the thicket close by. I'm thinking about some roasted rabbit to go with our veggies.... Also considering getting a dog, but our neighbor has chickens and we don't need any neighbor problems. Do you think a cat would do the trick? My parents have always had cats, and never had rabbit problems. 

I have heard about the diatomaceous earth, and several bloggers singing its praises. Will have to try that, as well as the diswashing detergent. I am not normally sadistic, but the thought of aphids dehydrating and dying makes me a little too happy. 

The whole thing is most definitely "cuss worthy."


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