Everything's been eaten to death

Nearly everything in our little gardens been eaten to death by bugs slugs and snails. We constantly battle with slugs and snails but this year plants that are normally left alone by pests such as sunflowers and lupins have beento thepoint that no leaves as such remain only the veins of the leaves are left. Can anyone help please?

It's been such a dry year that slugs and snails have been few and far between here.

Are you sure it's not caterpillars that have eaten things - there seem to be more of those about this year 

In my garden, where it is all flowers and shrubs, I try to work with nature. I notice which things get eaten and which don't and try to fill the garden with mainly things that the pests are not interested in. I am also trying to make my garden increasingly wildlife friendly, the theory being that there will always be a predator for the pest. It is disappointing when things get eaten, but there are lots of things you can grow that won't be eaten.
If you do a search on slugs and snails on this forum, you will find lots of threads full of tips on getting rid of them, but if you can work with nature most things do sort themselves out and find balance quite naturally. The simplest thing in a garden, if you do want to get rid of them, is to go out on a damp night after dark, with a torch. You will find them everywhere, then you can either kill them or remove them. 

If they had been bitten off completely I would have blamed rabbits, bitten off and left pidgeons ..  but to veins has to be insect I would have thought.  Sorry - not a clue what would go for sunflowers.   

We have been lucky so far - last year there were so many caterpillars that they decimated my nasturtiums within a day. Then they all crawled up the house wall and hid under the eves.  Fingers crossed I have not seen any yet. 

Hopefully you have got rid of the slugs before the plants emerge.