Decimated Brassica seedlings

[robrocke]

Ugh. I planted about a dozen homegrown Brassica seedlings (Boy choy, Swiss chard, & Tatsoi) in a raised bed this past Sunday (5/4) and when I went to check on them yesterday evening (Thursday 5/9) I couldn't believe how decimated they were. I know I have slugs around. Could they do this much damage or is this from some other pest? Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[redback]

Wow devastation. Slugs and snails could do it. Put a few snail pellets around to find out.
If that's a raised bed you have just created tell us what soil went into the fill.

 

[robrocke]

Thanks for your thoughts @redback. I haven't had much luck with things like beer traps or going out at night to hand-pick slugs. (I'm not sure if that says something about the effectiveness of those methods or my commitment to keeping up with them.) I put some slug pellets around the beds yesterday and directly around what's left of the seedlings. Do you think I will see dead slugs or do they eat the bait and die elsewhere? The soil in my raised beds was a bulk delivery (from a reputable local provider) several years ago: I add DIY compost to it every year. My raised beds are made of untreated wood so they do decay over time. In fact the current wooden sides are probably on their last year. They've been in place maybe 5-7 years.