What is eating my bean plants?

[Snooks1971]

(Photos will upload shortly). The leaves are like lace and even completely gone leaving just the stems. Never had this before.
They are in old rusty drums that I’ve grown veg in for years - just mentioning this because slugs/snails/caterpillars can’t climb up the outsides.

I found a snail in a hanging basket suspended about 8 feet up once. They are persistent buggers.

😂 sorry I shouldn’t laugh! I feel your pain. I know what you mean but is this the same snail climbing up 3 different rusty drums - has it got a personal helicopter?

You're sure that no slugs hibernated over the winter in the soil you left in the drums? (Plus, I'm not so convinced that slugs and snails can't climb up the side of a drum, especially because it will be a relatively smooth surface for them to slither over.)

Ooh I don’t know. Thank you. I’m going by the fact that we have hostas in similar rusty drums that just don’t get eaten at all.

Put some beer traps in the drums to see if you catch any. That would be my first suspicion. Also you can put slug pellets around the base of the drums (if you use them), and of course, nematodes on the soil itself.

Save your egg shells in a tub and let them really dry out before crushing
and sprinkle around the plants.
My Swiss chard plants were
eaten one year and had me baffled, then noticed little sparrows flying in and out pecking at them, maybe because the weather was dry?

could even be caterpillars. turn all the leaves over and look for the buggers.

😂