What's eating the leaves of my seedlings?

[sarasota alex]

I noticed this damage on a few of the seedlings in my shadehouse.

Salacca zalacca with Desmoncus osensis behind it

Close up of Desmoncus with most leaves eaten

Another Desmoncus osensis with only one leaf destroyed on the left

What is it? Is it contagious? What do I do? Anything?

I primarily care about the Desmoncus. Those are my only two seedlings of that species left. And I have a couple of others hard-to-replace rare palms in that small shadehouse. So I'm concerned. Help! Thanks!

[sarasota alex]

Just showed it to my wife, and she thinks snails did it...

[Jubaea]

I think it is slugs or snails. I see the same type of damage on some of my palm seedlings but not as bad as that.

[Pip]

Looks like slug and snail damage. Every winter my small Ravenea rivularis would get hammered. Those creatures would shread Ravenea leaves overnight to a few weeks depending on the weather. If slugs and snails are not controlled they will eventually kill young palms.

[Monòver]

Slugs or caterpillars.

If it is slugs or snails, you will see slime in the leaves.

[Palms4Steve]

I think caterpillars

[Pal Meir]

Ditto: caterpillars …

[Pip]

You won't see slug and snail slime if it has been raining.

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

Caterpillars

[Pal Meir]

Do you have box-trees in your vicinity? Then it could be this pest: Cydalima perspectalis, an imported Asian moth, specialized on box-trees. The damage on my box-trees was very similar to yours on the palmseedlings.

Cf. also this link; perhaps you might find similar caterpillars:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cydalima_perspectalis

[Cikas]

snails

[MAPU 1]

I have the same problem here in Florida. It's usually the Cuban Snail or slugs. The snails usually bury

themselves in the soil in the day time.Get some snail bait and sprinkle around the plants. you will most likely see dead snails

in a couple of days.