pest control voles

Growing Hostas: Pests and Plagues

One of the things that makes growing hostas easy and fun is the species’ resistance to pests and disease. But though they are very pest-resistant, there are a few critters to look out for.

Slugs and Snails These are the most common hosta pests. Unchecked they can wreak havoc on your plants, chewing small round holes in the leaves until the foliage looks like Swiss cheese. Fortunately slugs and snails are easy to spot and easy to control.

Commercial slug pellets and baits are the most sure-fire method of controling these pests; even a fairly significant infestation can be eliminated quickly. But if you go this route, be sure to follow package directions carefully, as the active ingredients can be poisonous to animals and birds.

If you’re reluctant to use chemicals, you can try setting beer traps. Simply fill a shallow container (like a pie tin) with beer and set it out near the plants overnight. The theory is that the slugs and snails will crawl into the container but will be unable to crawl back out.

Deer Deer are fond of hosta leaves and can munch a path of destruction through your garden in a single evening. This can be a real problem in rural areas. Tall fences and a barking dog are the traditional deer defenses, but you can also try spraying the hosta leaves will commercial deer repellant.

Rabbits, squirrels, and voles These small garden visitors can make a mess of a hosta garden. Rabbits make a spring salad of tender shoots, squirrels may dig the plants out of the ground, and voles feast on the roots. Try surrounding the plants with hardware-cloth cages.

Diseases

Hostas are generally very disease-resistant, though they occasionally fall victim to bacterial or viral infections. Bacterial soft rot, which makes the stems soft and mushy with a distinctive unpleasant smell, is both difficult to treat and very infectious. Plants with symptoms of bacterial soft rot should be discarded.

Viral diseases generally cause spotting or irregular mottling on the leaves, but may also cause the leaves to look burnt around the edges. Like bacterial disease, hostas viruses are highly infectious and difficult to eradicate, so disposing of infected plants is the best bet.

What are the benefit(s) of using Zinc Phosphide in pest control?

What are the benefit(s) of using Zinc Phosphide (Zn3P2) to help Control or get ride of pests such as rats, mice, voles, ground squirrels, prairie dogs, nutria, muskrats, feral rabbits, gophers and brush tail possum?

This compound will not cause long term damage to the environment.