I dunno Sue, maybe east coast slugs ARE different! I have a lot of hostas and a
lot of slugs and I have not found the slugs to be particularly troublesome. You
can certainly tell which hostas they prefer - the bottom-most leaves are very
obviously munched, but as I described - from the outside in. The tiny little
holes that appear on mine scattered throughout the leaves of the plant do not
materialize until well after the leaves have unfurled, so it is unlikely that
slugs did the job before the leaves fully emerged. And there are no telltale
traces of slime. My assumption is flea beetles, as the damage is identical to
that seen on other flea beetle-preferred crops.
As to developing tolerance, for me it is a time consideration :-)) I am too busy
at this time of year to give more than a superficial overview to garden
maintenance, so the ONLY pest control I've done is to remove a couple of tent
caterpillar nests. I no longer even bait for the slugs - if they cross my path,
they are toast, but I don't seek them out. I do remove foliage that is very
badly damaged and in the case of my cardiocrinums (which, btw, are blooming this
year - yahoo!) which slugs adore, I plant something in front of them to hide the
destruction of the bottom foliage.
I agree that biodiversity goes a long way in deterring pest damage - the more I
plant and the more different plants I incorporate in my garden, the less
problems there seem to be. The natural predators like birds and beneficials take
care of the bulk of the problem. Otherwise I go by the 10 foot rule - if the
damage is not visibly significant from 10 feet away, then it is not an issue and
I ignore it. I am constantly amazed at the number of clients that come in with a
single leaf with a tiny little hole and fuss about what to spray to control
whatever is causing that itty-bitty problem. Do they inspect their gardens with
magnifying glasses? Get a life! We can all afford to sacrifice a few leaves to
insects - far better to save the big pesticide guns to something that threatens
total plant destruction rather than a few munched leaves.
East coast pests may indeed be different - my observations regarding this issue
were based entirely on my own experience and of course, YMMV :-))
pam - gardengal
SugarChile wrote:
Wow, Pam, usually I am in complete agreement with your advice, but this time
I have to differ. Maybe your slugs are different from our east coast ones.
Slug damage here is often seen as holes eaten in the center portions of the
leaves. With hostas especially (and young cannas) they can eat through an
emerging leaf, so that when it unfurls there is a swiss cheese pattern. It
has been a banner year for slugs here, with the unusually cool and rainy
weather, and I have had to use Sluggo to protect plants that are usually
resistant.
Flea beetles, on the other hand, are seldom if ever a hosta pest here. They
do love eggplants, and I wish they were innocuous! They can be so numerous
as to kill or permanently stunt a young plant. I keep my eggplant seedling
in pots until fairly late in the spring--just planted mine last week--so
they are larger and have a fighting chance, and so that I miss the spring
flush of flea beetle hatchings.
I do agree with you on developing some tolerance for insect damage. There
are a few plants I no longer grow, because it's not worth the struggle, a
vast majority of plants where I don't care about casual damage, and a small
number of plants where I take an active hand (but a gentle, organic one) in
controlling pests. It is amazing what working to establish a balanced
ecosystem will do to diminish pest problems.
Cheers,
Sue
Zone 6, Southcentral PA
Sounds like flea beetles, a small and innocuous pest that really does no
serious damage, but certainly can make hostas unslightly. Slugs and snails
typically munch from the edges in, while flea beetles will make small
holes
throughout the leaf. It is seldom recommended to treat for these pests -
one
needs to develop some insect tolerance.
pam - gardengal