Hello, friends! Today I will tell you which pests like to eat hostas and how to deal with them.
⚡QUICK ANSWER: Your hostas are likely being eaten by slugs or snails, which leave irregular holes and slime trails. Other common pests include deer, rabbits, and insects like cutworms or beetles. Check for damage patterns to identify the culprit. 🐌🦌🐇
🐌Slugs and snails
In spring, slugs can quickly destroy young hosta leaves. Rainy summer weather causes snail numbers to surge, making control harder.
Control:
- Use iron phosphate pellets, placing them under each plant and replenishing as needed.
- Traps can also help reduce their population.
- Choose thick-leaved hosta varieties, which are less likely to be eaten.
Read more: How to get rid of Slugs on Hostas?
🦌Deer
Deer can devour all the leaves of a hosta plant within minutes. While the plant will survive, it won’t look attractive and will remain stunted, leaving you without beautiful foliage for the entire season. It will only recover the following year.
Control:
- A sturdy fence is the most effective and reliable way to protect hostas from deer.
- Dogs can help deter deer by patrolling the garden.
- Repellents are another option. Homemade sprays or store-bought garlic-based solutions can keep deer away when applied regularly, especially after rain.
Read more: Do Deer Eat Hostas?
🐇Rabbits
Rabbits can eat young hostas down to the ground. When leaves mature, they usually go for tender new growth. The plants will recover, but their appearance may suffer.
Control:
- Use fencing to keep rabbits away.
- Live traps can help reduce their numbers.
- Sprinkle moth flakes around the garden as a simple, low-cost deterrent.
🐿️Chipmunks
Chipmunks sometimes chew on hosta leaves, though not every gardener has issues with them.
Control:
- Place mothballs under hosta bushes to repel chipmunks with their scent.
- Sprinkle pepper powder around plants as an extra deterrent.
🐀Voles
Voles are one of the most destructive pests for hostas and other ornamentals. They feed on roots and can wipe out an entire flowerbed, especially in winter when food is scarce. Damage often becomes visible in spring as dead or missing rhizomes.
Control:
- Use castor oil, which is effective, safe, and affordable.
- Mix 1/3 cup dish soap with 5 gallons of water, then add 3 cups of castor oil.
- Pour the solution generously around the base of each plant to repel voles.
Read more: Do Groundhogs Eat Hostas?
🪳Insects
Insects can severely damage hostas, sometimes killing the plant.
Milder pests like mealybugs, box beetles, whiteflies, and aphids feed on sap but don’t eat the leaves.
More harmful pests, like the black grape weevil, chew along the leaf edges.
Control:
- Mix 1 teaspoon of soap and 2 tablespoons of neem oil in 1 gallon of water, then spray the plants.
- You can also use commercial insecticides, diluted in water and applied with a sprayer.
Read more: How to Protect Hosta Plants From Bugs?
🐛Cutworms
Cutworms are moth larvae that can cause serious damage to hostas. They chew large holes in leaves and can even harm the stems, leaving plants weak and unattractive.
Control:
- Sprinkle Diatomaceous Earth around each hosta. When larvae crawl over it, they dehydrate and die.
- Insecticidal soap is another effective option. Spray the leaves a couple of times early in the season to stop cutworms before they spread.
- Keep the garden clean by removing plant debris where cutworms might hide.
- For heavy infestations, consider using a targeted organic insecticide for added protection.
🪱Nematodes
Nematodes are microscopic pests that live inside hostas and feed on their tissues. During summer, they move from the rhizome up the stems into the leaves. They eat the leaves from the inside, leaving dry, brown streaks between the veins.
Control:
- Unfortunately, there’s no reliable treatment to eliminate nematodes.
- In mid-August, cut back the hosta leaves and stems while nematodes are still inside.
- Dispose of the cut material far away or burn it.
- Never compost infected leaves, as this will spread nematodes and cause reinfestation the following spring.
Read more: Hosta Foliar Nematodes
🌱Ask me anything in the comments!🌱
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Help! My hosta stems are being eaten off and devoured! They leave the leafs behind. What is doing this?
Hi, Wendy. It could be chipmunks or other rodents.
My hostas plants and my impatiens were totally defoliated by insects. Noticed many caterpillars there climbing on my house walls. All I have left is impatiens stems which I pulled and the shredded hostas veins which look like fine grass.what will fix that problem?
Hi Dee. In your case I would recommend contacting a local pest control company as it is difficult to get rid of large numbers of caterpillars on your own.
I saw ant like bugs on my hostas. Will soap water get rid of these?
Hi Barbara! I recommend you to use an insecticidal soap or Horticultural oil.
Great article! I have something that is literally cutting the hostas stems at the ground and leaving it behind where it fell? Whatever it is it has devastated my garden?
Hi Paula,
It’s hard to tell without a photo, so if you can attach a photo of the damaged hostas. From what you say, I can conclude that the pest is some kind of animal (not insects or slugs).
In this case, I would recommend using repellents. For example, deer repellent or mothballs.
I hope I have helped you. Be sure to let me know if you managed to solve the problem. I wish you all the best!
I just planted bare root Hosta in shady area that has stones covering the ground. Two inch leaves are being nibbled in a zigzag fashion. I live in southern AZ, 35 miles north of border. I just sprinkled them with cinnamon. I am thinking mice?
Hi Carol,
It looks like your hosta was damaged by some kind of rodent. I would recommend using moth flakes or some other repellent.
Hope that helps. I would be happy to answer any other questions you may have.
My. Hosta are disappearing what could be eating them?
Hi Pat,
Most likely your hosts are being eaten by slugs or deer. In this article, you will find methods to deal with this.
I hope I have helped you. I look forward to hearing from you.
Trying to figure out what to do with these. I have 5 all in a bed on the shady side of the house. 3 of them look like this (it seems the mostly green ones are OK)
Hello,
The brown edge on your hostas is the result of heat and dry air. To avoid this next year, provide them with full shade without direct sunlight and water when the soil is 1 inch dry.