All the time! Beheaded in no time. I know it sounds cruel, but I have no other option!.

Welcome to tropical nightmare!

Chanin I feel your pain. We have those buggers here too. Since I started using systemic insectide this problem ceased except for an occasional brave bug that will take a nibble but quickly moves on without leaving much of a scar on the plant, most of the time its not even noticable with a close examination of the leaf

We do not get those grasshoppers down here...there is an insect we call the tree weta, that is similar, and can do that sort of damage, but it is not very common in the average garden.

We do have one critter that has a real taste for Alcantarea. They graze on the leaf surface, which then slowly dies off leaving ragged end to the leaves. Very annoying...!

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And here is the culprit...the common garden snail...!

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It is usually the smaller ones that cause the damage during spring & autumn. They only target the younger plants, not often mature plants...I wonder if the leaf chemistry changes as the plants mature, making them less tasty for the snails...???

Oh bugger!! I got loads.

They leave my Neos alone.
But it looks like I have to do something about my snails then next summer. I hear they like seedlings too.

Cups of beer in the grond works for me, they party all night and commit suicide when the hangover kicks in.
But boy do I hate to buy them beer.

Sander

Chanin, get more lizzards!

(^_^) Ten lizzards not enough LOL !!

And hey! you guys..have to work harder.

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They are so nice!
I wouldn't mind 100 in my garden.

Sander

As long as you're buying them beer, Sander, get them some nice salty snacks to go with it. Snails just looooove salt!

LOL

The beer thing really works though, they drown themselves in it. Better than the coffee grounds trick, they avoid the coffee but still find a way to my plants.
I don't like to use chemicals, we have salamanders, frogs and a few rare birds over here. Since we are in the middle of a crowded city that is really special to us.

There are some nasty beetles and grashoppers over here too but the birds take care of that problem.

Sander

I hate grasshoppers with a passion, and with the weather heating up, I've already noticed a whole new generation of the buggers hopping around my garden. I find that the only thing that kills them is the bottom of my shoe. Saw a dirty great big one on some of my broms the other day. One of those big, ugly, greyish coloured ones.

I hate them too! the grasshoppers ate my Aechmea 'Ensign' last year. This year they're drooling over my Burnsie's Spiral. I'm going to chew their heads off and spit them out! see how they like it LOL
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No grasshoppers this year, but they've chewed holes in my coconut palm's young fronds and plumeria leaves in the past.

Ashes from the BBQ or fireplace also work on snails!!!