snails and powdery substance on stem of shrubs

[gimp]

what is this and how or should it die. I have been spotting white and black powdery areas on some of my shrubs ,mainly at mid stem inside and some spotting on the topm, of the leaves , also we have found some type of hard shell spore that looks like a small cup attached to the top of my mulch and they are every where,last but not least we also noticed some small snails in some areas of our flower bed -are they benificial or detramental , any help would be appreciated ! :?

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

I don't know if there is too much info here or not enough. The powdery stuff sounds like a mildew (fungs). You should be able to control that with either baking soda or corn meal. For the baking soda you would mix the baking soda in water and spray the plant. For the corn meal you would soak the corn meal in water overnight and spray with the water.

The other things sound like scale but I've never heard of scale "attacking" mulch.

Snails could be beneficial but that would be a total fluke. There is one kind of snail that goes after the rest of the snails, but you need the pests first to feed the beneficials.

You can try Sluggo against the snails. If that doesn't work for you, I have a nonorganic solution that will work without doing widespread damage.