I have a large mint plant in a sunken pot in my herb bed. It's cousin the lemon balm is getting big and bushy but the mint is being eaten as it shoots. A gerdener friend says it can't be slugs as they don't like mint. What can it be and how can I stop it please? I like minty salads in the summer!

Care of Mint

Mulching the soil will go a long way to keeping mint happy - it will achieve the all important job of keeping a moist root run which mint likes so much. A twice yearly feeding with bonemeal will keep it even happier. Remove the flowers by hand as soon as they appear because if left, they will reduce the amount of leaves. There is very little else to do except

Mint suffers from only one disease and that is rust - allow it to get a hold and it will kill all your mint plants. There are chemical sprays for rust, but they can often be only a part solution. The best method is to examine each plant carefully for signs of rust (orange blobs generally on the underside of the leaves) and remove any leaves affected - spray as well with a chemical if you want. If this does not remove the infection chop the plant down to ground level and burn it all - drastic, but the only cure in the late stages of rust infection

you could allso look here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mint_diseases

Have a look under the leaves, there might be some little hairy caterpillars or flea beetles (wee dark shiny oval shaped bug that jumps when disturbed)

if you get one of those yellow card sticky traps, hold it above the plant and then tap it, you can catch some that way as they jump off

It does seem to be slugs.... there are snail trails on the leaves and i found some teeny tiny slugs when i had a really good look. think i'm gonna try nematodes

Is the Lemon Balm in with your Mint?

No it's in a sunken pot next to it.