grub or slug?

ken

How about a rabbit or some other maurading rodent?
Linda C

You need Leroy Brown

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKPoultryPage.html

Janet, you linked to my other addiction. Like Hostas, I would love to have one of every chicken. They are so decorative and hysterical to watch (seriously!).
The downside is that they love hosta, so I can't turn them loose to eat bugs anywhere near my hosta since they will eat the hostas in minutes!
Annette

I'm with Linda C--My pet bunny, Mr. Hopkins, LOVES to nibble on my hostas any chance he gets. He is a beautiful french lop (think Thumper) so I choose to just look the other way. These are so hardy, they always recover.

W.G.

sow bugs generally don't eat live plants. They eat decaying ones. They are not considered harmful in a garden but beneficial.

(joins BuyOrSell in the defense of the sow bugs)

I heard they eat tiny roots, too, but Wikipedia says no, they're just detritivores.

I've never heard of sow bugs / wood lice bothering hosta.

I'll look through my photos cds for a pic of a group of sow bug here eating live hostas so people will see for themselves that it does happen :-( I think mary_ann has seen them eating her hostas also.

Annette, I know chickens can tear up a garden, but isn't there one that doesn't, or at least, much less than the other breeds?

Ever since I started gardening I've wanted a chicken, but I live in the city.

I haven't been around live chickens often, but one day when I was driving in the country, I saw a rooster chasing 4 hens around and around the front yard of a farmhouse. The 4 hens looked as if they were running for their lives. It was hysterical. I don't know what kind they were but they were beautiful.

How many chickens do you have?

Jamie's right. I've watched helplessly as armies of sowbugs chow down my healthy leaves right down to the nubs even tho' there's lots of organic debris on the soil for them to feed on. Sowbugs are the #l pest here.