Hosta

[bombastix]

I have a shady garden, woodland vibes. Every year I get recommended hostas for texture and style, but I don't buy them because of the slugs.

If you have hostas how do you stop the slug attacks? They are lovely plants but it's all about that beautiful leaf not being munched!

Our garden in infested with some sort of red ant which has an extremely nasty bite (not wood ants) and they seem to keep the slug population to a minimum. I mean send you some but I wouldnt recommend it! I think the blue leaves hostas are supposed to be a bit more resistant to slugs and snails?

I’ve tried putting egg shells and a saucer of beer round mine with no luck. Someone suggested using coffee grounds so I’ll give that a try.

Basically I go out at dusk with a torch and remove as many as I can. Look under pots and in pots under the leaves for the baby ones. This is the most effective method but time consuming

i was feeling the same as you op, i didn’t dare put hostas in my garden, until i couldn’t resist any longer. i’ve planted the blue leaved ones where theres no slugs and the yummiest one in a pot on stones. it’s my first year, they’re coming up, so i’m watching with interest !

I once planted some hostas that were advertised as "slugproof". Yeah, my slugs had a good laugh at that as they munched their way through every single leaf.

I've given up now, am planting Japanese anemones in my shady spaces instead

For a few years I dug in nematodes and they do work. However it's a faff so I now stick to slug resistant plants.

I've heard spraying the pot with wd40 helps

It sounds like a doomed enterprise from these answers. I know the garden is full of hungry slugs as last year planted some lupins and they we're destroyed overnight.