Question
I live in Michigan.  I plant half runner green bean seeds sent to me by my uncle in West Virginia.  I have planted these type of seeds for the last six years and have harvested a large crop of beans.  Up until last year my beans were invaded by small bugs that looked similar to lady bugs except they were a yellowish color. This year I moved my plantings to another garden (we have three raised garden beds) across the yard from the previous year.  The beans are approximately 1" up and they are being devoured by something.  I do not see any bugs, bug residue, or eggs.  We use compost only to fertilize and til the garden before each planting.  We do not use any pestisides, however, this year I am considering it.  Please advise what would be the best course of action without using a harmful pesticide.  Thank you.

Answer
From your question, it sounds like your plants have fallen victim to the common slug.  This is the time of year they come out of the woodwork and eat everything in sight, and they do it under cover of darkness.  There are many pests of green beans, but slugs are the only pest I can think of that will eat something that's only an inch high.

You have a few options.  See if this helps.  If it does, you know thy enemy, which is the most important step in beating your enemy.

Coffee grounds are fairly effective on slugs.  Starbucks will give them to you for free.  Tell them you don't mind if they leave the liner in, and they'll be falling all over themselves to give you their used coffee grounds.

Make sure there are no slugs on the plants when you surround them with the coffee.  Use a thick layer and really spread the coffee out until there is no visible soil.

A collar of copper tape will shock slugs into avoiding anything it surrounds.  Try polished pennies if you can't find the tape.

A shallow saucer of Budweiser will at least tell you there are slugs in the neighborhood.  That could be your smoking gun.  It will probably not however solve your slug problem.  There is not enough Budweiser in the United States to kill all the slugs in any one neighborhood.  For every slug you witness, There are 100 others on leaves a foot away hiding from you, just waiting for you to leave.

Of course, rabbits and deer get hungry, but you have not mentioned those as a possibility, and people who deal with those as problems seem to accuse rabbits and deer of everything that goes wrong in their garden.  Like it's an obsession.  If you think it could be them, though, please let me know.

For future reference, rotating your garden every year or two will get your yellow-ladybug problem under control.

It sounds like you work very hard out there in your garden.  Do please keep me posted.  Slugs?

THE LONG ISLAND GARDENER