What is eating this Orchid Cactus plrasr ...

Slugs, they do it to mine also.

 

Up in a hanging basket?

 

Yes - they're not afraid of heights
Seriously, they will slither up brick walls and sniff out your hanging basket - no problem.
I've had slug/snail damage many times when I used to have hanging baskets

PS - stunning plant btw

 

It hangs where the wind chime is to the left in the Iochroma over 12 Hibiscus rosa-sinensis in pots which have never been affected.



We have never seen a slug here and rarely a snail due to our dryness. But, not to say one wasn't here ... so what do I do now to save the plant and keep slugs away?

 

Snails even eat my Agave leaves, they seem to have really rasp like mouth parts, and of course they can stay up in tree for a few days as they dont dry out like slugs do.
Its a night time check that often catches them, slugs snails or caterpillars.

 

You could put down just a few slug/snail pellets.
The pellets sold in the UK are no longer toxic to anything other than some slugs and snails.
I don't know what available in Portugal

 

Yes they can get everywhere if there's food there for them, and they come out at night when it's a bit cooler and damper. They can also be very tiny.

 

Our "cool" is around 14c and very dry. We were 25c today and breezy.

Update ...

I put coffee grounds at the edges of the moss ...


I will hope for the best.

 

I still say it's slugs or snails, that's exactly the sort of damage they do. Slugs need some moisture, and the soil in the pot must have some moisture for a cactus like that to survive.
We regularly get night temperatures in the high teens during summer months, and yet slugs will come out at night because of the moisture in the air. You must have some moisture in the air, you don't live in a desert and I think you have lots of orange trees around you ? which would make the air a bit moist at night
If it isn't slugs or snails it's something with a rasping mouth, and I don't know what else has that.

 

Thanks for that @Michael Hewett. We just don't understand it as the basket (wire with moss like lining and a handful of compost) was featherweight not having been watered for days, and we wonder how whatever got so high in the Iochroma to drop into the basket. I did have one flower bud but it dropped off. It is not ideal having to rely on someone else. But it is what it is and I will monitor closely from now on. Just hope they survive.

 

I wonder if the slugs were already in the compost when you had it @Victoria ? or maybe their eggs . If they were then anything you do to stop them won't work. Maybe it would be a good idea to change the compost.