My ficus tree lost all of its leaves, started to regrow, and now slugs

Question

I purchased a fiddle leaf ficus tree this past November and a few weeks in it began to drop its leaves and continued to do so throughout the winter. I thought it was because it was next to a drafty window until this spring it continued to drop leaves and I realized it was because the light from the window wasn’t direct, it was reflecting off of the surrounding buildings (I live in the city in an apartment). So I moved the tree to my boyfriend’s apartment where my tree could get plenty of direct light and it started to regrow new leaves from the bottom of the trunk to about halfway up the length of the 3 1/2 foot trunk. The branches appear to have died. I came home today to find three of the new leaves sitting on the soil and one of them was eaten to death by little slugs. My concern is that because only one of the leaves was eaten, does that mean that my tree just dropped the other leaves from stress? Will this continue to happen? I’m afraid that because it was already in a delicate state from dropping and regrowing its leaves it might not have the strength to regrow after this incident. Please help!

Answer 1

My first concern would be to get rid of the “little slugs”, if that’s what they are. I don’t think you want them all over your boyfriends place, right? You can get slug/snail killer at any plant store, or use diatomacious earth, which is not a poison, just sharp little granules that cuts them up as they crawl around. Get rid of the slugs, then see what happens.