Here are some options from my bug zoo:

• Caterpillars--I have 2 million cabbage white butterflies zooming about, Monarchs and other butterflies I cannot ID
• Hornworm -- take your pick I probably have them all on my lot
• Spiders -- and could be spider mites, too. I can't tell how to differentiate but I do actually have a billion spiders here in this city
• Slugs and snails: I have two different types of bait out and STILL find one occasionally. They have thrown me back at least two months for some plantings...
• Ground Beetles--mean looking things but they're supposed to eat slug eggs or something. Mine are not doing their jobs that well.
• Earwigs: I can find you 50 on any given day. Just lift a pot, please. Any pot will do.
• Ants.... My ants don't even prefer sweet things. They gather near anything...like tomato leaves that were just pruned off. Don't know what's wrong with them.
• 1 squirrel: I hate squirrels. They hate me, too. This one does like my fence and runs around all day. It likes my pots, too...and digs up

I could go on. Lol

High on my list: snails.

"Would BT help?" Maybe, maybe not. It will depend on what is causing the damage and if it is slugs or snails then no the BT will not be of any help.

Snails and slugs are nocturnal, night time critters, and hide during the day to avoid the sun and heat in cool, moist places such as under stones, rocks, mulches, or anything that provides protection from the sun.

When does the damage occur?

What, if anything, have you seen on the plant?

kimmq is kimmsr

We used to use a tuna can filled with beer to get rid of slugs. They drink it and they die.

Slugs, and snails, are attracted to the yeasty odor produced by stale beer and they drown when the crawl into that liquid, drinking the beer does not kill them.

Perhaps this article will shed some light on the subject.

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05515.html

kimmq is kimmsr

Arrrggh. If it is snails, then I guess my incredibly intense usage of two different kinds of bait is not working. I thought that might be the case because I have found a random snail a few times now, which I throw away, but if you find one...there's probably a whole lot more. I used my regular iron phosphate but it wasn't doing enough so I even bought metaldehyde. The latter really improved things but not enough, apparently.

kimm, no idea when the damage occurs. I look at it closely a few times per week when I water but other than that, it's from afar. I have not seen anything on this plant, so I presume it's at night. I know that section of my yard is where I saw the huge number of what I think are ground beetles when I was washing off the fences and they started climbing UP? But I've never seen anything actually on the plant---just holes. Big holes.

i also bought neem oil. I've never used it but given my trials this year, I figured it's better than not having it on hand. What I really wanted was Talstar, but that seemed a little severe LOL. If anyone knows a reason not to use neem on succulents, please holler and let me know.

I did do beer traps and they are fun, fun, fun, haha! But I absolutely hated cleaning up the jars that would trap snails, slugs, earwigs and other long white creatures that I never ID'd, and then refilling them nightly was not much fun either. Once I got through two six-packs of Coors, I called it a day and bought the metaldehyde. The strange thing was that I didn't even bury them--simply put the can ON soil and by morning, they were full. All the bastards climbed up and into the cans to die.