mini snails on my cotoneaster

so i just recently purchased a nice little cotoneaster. when i got it home and started to do a little clean up work on it i noticed a couple miniature snail looking creatures in the canopy. needless to say i removed those suckers with a fierceness and checked for their friends. i think i got them all. anyone run into such creatures?

Sure. You did the right thing. But there may be snail eggs in the soil or on the plant itself, so keep an eye out for a while.

Nurseries are havens for these kinds of critters. You should always scour a newly acquired plant for critters of various kinds.

oh trust me i looked at this thing the best i could, even with a flashlight due to the fact of it being after sun down. then the next day at home when i cleaned it up i noticed them

Just a few days ago I noticed that my cottoneaster had aphids on it, little green ones. They were on all of the new growth. Sprayed it with a mixture of neem, soap, oil & water. Seemed to kill them but left my plant with a handful of brown leaves. Pain in the butt.

Jishwa wrote:Just a few days ago I noticed that my cottoneaster had aphids on it, little green ones. They were on all of the new growth. Sprayed it with a mixture of neem, soap, oil & water. Seemed to kill them but left my plant with a handful of brown leaves. Pain in the butt.

You need to know what your are spraying -- and mixing pesticides is NEVER a good idea. The soap spray would have been perfectly adequate for aphids.

Neem is oil-based, I think (I don't use the stuff), so the oil you added made it even oilier. If the tree was in the sun, you probably deep fried your leaves.

Jishwa wrote:Just a few days ago I noticed that my cottoneaster had aphids on it, little green ones. They were on all of the new growth. Sprayed it with a mixture of neem, soap, oil & water. Seemed to kill them but left my plant with a handful of brown leaves. Pain in the butt.

Neem oil is counter indicated for members of the rose family. Cotoneaster is a member of that family (Rosaceae)

-Jay

yeah wish I had read that prior to spraying...now a week later the neem really did a number on it. lots of burned leaves and the plant looks super unhealthy. I have used the oil/soap/water before and it worked great. I thought the added neem would help keep future bugs off..it was a total fail. I have tried to wash the plant off and flush the soil. we will see how it does.

fully defoliate the cotoneaster and it will make a complete new set of leaves inside 6 weeks. i'm guessing it is a little tree...........submerge it in a bucket of water next time to sort out attacks that are visibly damaging trees - you will do less damage in 5 hours under water than coating it in a concoction that kills off all the leaves.

little snails......if they are the tiny 2-3mm coiled ones just leave them be - I have colonies of such creatures living in my best trees for decades - so what, even if they had a feast they couldn't eat a leaf. There are so many beneficial creatures that can live in our trees and pots - helping with pest control, breaking down organic fertilizers etc. only contol visibly damaging problems.

cheers