Spider plant has holes in the leaves and black specks

Q: I went out of town and left my spider plant hanging in a friend’s enclosed workroom. When I got back two weeks later, the leaves had big holes and the tabletop underneath was covered with tiny black specks. How do I get rid of these eggs and the creature that ate my plant organically? 

A: The good news is that the black specks probably aren’t eggs. Instead, I’ll bet they are the gastric leavings dropped by whatever creature enjoyed your plant. It could be either a caterpillar or a snail. If it was a caterpillar, you would have seen it before you left. It’s not likely that there was enough time for a caterpillar to grow big enough to make large holes.

That leaves snails as the culprit. They are mobile enough to crawl from a couple of feet away to the pot and have a munch for lunch before departing. I see several places on the leaves where a snail could linger and rasp just the top layer of cells, leaving a windowpane effect. Chew a bit deeper and a hole in the leaf is formed. So you (or your friend) have snails that chew on plants. What can you do about it?

The most effective control is totally organic: diatomaceous earth. This material is mined in California, where once shallow seas contained tiny diatoms, which, when they died, left skeletons with extremely sharp microscopic edges. Get some diatomaceous earth from a garden center and sprinkle it on the surface of your pot’s soil. Any snails that crawl over it will have their undersides sliced to ribbons by the diatomaceous earth.You can choose whether or not to watch the event and listen to the tiny snail screams.