Hostas/slugs
Esspee
Posts: 274
I am thinking of running up the white flag and digging up my Hostas. In a good year they looked magnificent but this has been my worst year ever and it is heartbreaking to look at the ugly skeletal leaves. When I moved into this house we had a bit of a slug problem but thankfully no snails. Now I am overrun with both. I am wondering if word got around the local area that I was generous with the slug pubs and slug food so all the little blighters in the neighbourhood moved in.
Would moving the Hostas into pots work? Should I wash off all soil to prevent transferring eggs? Is there anything I can do to exterminate them? How about building a pond and transferring frogspawn in the spring? Can one buy hedgehogs anywhere? I am at my wits end. Any suggestions fellow sufferers?
Posts
Hi Esspee. Sorry to hear about your poor hostas. I purchased about 10 hostas for the first time this year and was warned about slugs and snails. This is what I have done:-
In around February, I started sprinkling slug pellets around the garden. I read somewhere that if you start early you stop many slugs and snails breeding. When I planted the hostas I surrounded them with copper rings and also kept putting slug pellets around the rings on the soil. There are definitely slugs and snails in our garden because I clear the corpses away but with the exception of my white feather hosta, my hostas have been hole free so far. It is quite a lot of work but definitely worth it in my mind when you see the lovely hosta plants growing.
I know others on the forum keep hostas in pots and I'm sure they'll be along shortly to help you with their experiences.
Don't give up on Hostas though, they're too beautiful!
Thank you for your advice. Where can one buy copper rings?
Thank you for your encouragement. Is copper tape easily available at a reasonable cost?
I have been researching and have come across advice to water the leaves with a garlic infusion. Would wild garlic leaves work do you think? I have made an infusion of comfrey before to act as a natural fertiliser so I am familiar with that idea.
Alternatively, if I cut back all the Hosta leaves now (they look so sad) that would expose the soil and perhaps give me a better chance of inflicting major casualties to the slug and snail population before the winter.
Comments most welcome.
Esspee, I've just seen copper tape on offer in Aldi or Home Bargains, can't remember which one because I went in both, but there was plenty in stock. For some reason unknown to me the slugs have been nowhere near the 3 Hostas I bought this year, they have eaten a lot of others things but left them be.....maybe they aren't the tasty variety??
Do you have a note of what variety they are?
Mine in pots have copper tape round - buy from garden centres / on line. In ground I use slug pellets, keep leaves off ground by tying up to a small unseen cane and I put gravel round or crushed egg shells if not visible area - eg my allotment. I can't do the slug patrol on my allot so they are not as good as the ones I keep at home in pots with copper.
I got my copper rings from Amazon:-
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002MSNVAY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
No I don't esspee, they were just cheap bare root ones from Aldi or Lidl and didn't have the variety on, maybe our slugs have more expensive taste