What Animals Eat Hostas? These Four Creatures Will Surprise You!

Introduction

Wondering what is eating your hosta plants? Some of our discoveries may shock you! But first, what are hostas? They are tough perennials that can grow in both the sun and in the shade. They are an attractive option for any garden wedding decoration because of their large, attractive leaves.

An attractive hostas plantation

A huge number of animals are attracted to the beauty of the plant. However, their main aim is not to merely admire the plant’s foliage but to eat it. Here, we are going to look at some of these animals that feed on hostas and how to control them.

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What Animals Eat Hostas? These Four Creatures Will Surprise You!Introduction What Animals Are Eating Your Hostas The Deer Hugely Feed On Hostas Two Nocturnal Pests – Snails And Slugs Rabbits Hiding In Your Garden Squirrels And Volesa Conclusion

What Animals Are Eating Your Hostas

The deer hugely feed on hostas
Two nocturnal pests, snails and slugs
Those Rabbits hiding in your farm
Squirrels and voles

The Deer Hugely Feed On Hostas

The deer can consume an entire field of hostas

One of the common animals that prey on hostas is the deer. These large and fast animals can clear an entire hosta plantation within a very short time. If you are living next to highly populated deer environment, what then does this mean to your hosta plants? The answer is quite simple! Your plants would simply become a late-evening snack.

You may install high-security fences so as to keep the deer out of your garden or yard, but the method is not always effective and practical. Therefore, we have come up with an alternative method.

Apply deer repellent sprays on the leaves. They cause a certain unpleasant taste and do not destroy the plants. Take note that they are not waterproof and it is best to spray them during dry weather, and again after it has rained.

Two Nocturnal Pests – Snails And Slugs

Slugs and snails destroy hostas

They tend to feed on the leaves of these plants, leaving a slimy, shiny trail as they pass. Hostas, which are thin in nature, stand a higher chance of being affected by telltale signs – round holes on the leaves of the hosta plants. Some methods to control these pests from destroying your entire yard include:

Handpicking the pests from the leaves
Placing beer traps – small doses of the yeasty liquid are huge snail and slug attractions, making them fall into the beverage once they come closer to the scent
Use chemical based traps

Rabbits Hiding In Your Garden

They may appear harmless but they are eating your hostas

If you have rabbits hiding in your yard of hostas, then the results will be damaging. They may end up making a quick meal of your hosta plants. These animals feed on hosta plants in two ways. In the spring, they consume the early shoots. As the season goes on, they turn to the flowers.

There are quite a number of ways to control these ‘beasts’. Since rabbits tend to hide in long grass, mow the lawn around your hosta plantation using the best lawn mowers. Also, you may also decide to fence your garden, but there’s a problem! Rabbits may not enter fenced environments but other persistent animals may end up moving from under the barrier. Therefore, you may find it hard to control such small animals.

Squirrels And Volesa

They are small rodents but cause a lot of damage on your hostas

So how do squirrels and voles consume hosta plants? Interestingly, they not only eat hostas during dry weather but they also uproot the roots of these plants. They end up destroying the entire hosta plantation by chewing up the roots. To protect your roots from these rodents, it’s much easier to use a heavy fabric enclosure as well as a wire. By doing so, these animals will not burrow through to the roots of the hostas.

Conclusion

Now that you know the kind of animals that may affect your hosta plantation, you may now carry out the right control methods. However, there is one important factor to always remember. While the growing a gorgeous crop of garlic, hostas, tomatoes or any other garden plant, approaching animal control carefully is very important or you may end up damaging the entire garden. In this case, avoid using the wrong chemicals, pesticides or toxins!

We hope that this article has been useful to you. Let us know if you have any questions or queries and we will get back to you as soon as possible. However, are you controlling your hosta plants from pests and animals? Below is a summary of control methods to use:

Build a fence around your yard
To avoid your hosta roots from being eaten, fit a wire and a fabric enclosure
You may also use special repellents
Handpicking the pests from the leaves
Use of chemical traps