I would be really interested in hearing what others think this is.

I think the small translucent dot-area in the first rainforest sunrise picture may hold the answer.

Yes, without a doubt that is nematode damage. Sorry to see it showing so early in the season for you.

Thanks for the confirmation, Chris. I guess tomorrow I start digging and slapping on the driveway!

BTW I have had all of these plants for at least three years in the garden.I had an 8-plant breakout 2 years ago, but none of these were affected.

chris

Nematodes. The only hostas I have in my garden that, to my knowledge, have them are a couple of Gold Edgers, and they are beginning to show now.

Karen

Oh my GOSH! Nematodes already? Oh my GOSH!
Sorry, I feel your pain.

How do you treat the nematodes?

Yep, without a doubt--that is typical evidence of nematodes!

Sadly and surprisingly, I found my 'Sun Power' (first time) showing signs a week ago--probably at least 3-4 weeks earlier than expected for such damage to appear!

And, this is a great mystery to me: A month ago, I dug out a portion of my 'Capt. Kirk' in a whiskey barrel that has NEVER shown any evidence of nematodes. I planted the chunk in a portion of my garden that is at least 10 ft. from where about 6 years ago I planted a new hosta ('Blue Cadet') that very quickly (within days) showed it was infested. I immediately dug it up and threw it out and poured boiling water in the hole and a good area around it. I've not seen any evidence of their spread for all these years since, till yesterday, while on the phone with *Chris* (caving to the enticement of several posted pix of 'Fantasy Island') when I spotted a LOT of nem-infested leaves on my transplanted C.K.! I was SHOCKED to say the least!!

I KNEW it was nems, but so I could prove to myself and justify digging it up and throwing it away, I did the magnifier test! I tore one of the leaves in half, across the nem-trail and put it in a clear custard cup, filled with water and let it sit for a couple of hours. Then I placed the cup on top of a lampshade over the lit light bulb (it fit right in securely--being a small shade) and then used my 10X magnifier! What I saw was the SHOCKER! Whereas I usually have spotted one, two--maybe three of those little silver wiggly silks,(in previous infestations) slithering and whipping around in the water, I saw what HAD TO BE a 100 (or more) of them, even smaller than usual, just teaming wildly packed in that dish of water like minnows in the shallows of a stream! I nearly jumped out of my skin!!

I ran back to the garden, dug the plant and a large ball of the surrounding dirt, marched to the garbage can and dumped it in, went back in and got three pots of boiling water, dumped two in the hole and the surrounding area and poured the third over the shovel blade, front, back and edges!!

Now--HOW can that plant be infested and so incredibly badly? And, how--so far--there are (thankfully) no others in the same area (please God, not my 'Lady Isobel Barnett' right next to it), but I do know it is way earlier than usual for them to appear!!

And, HOW can there be SO MANY OF THEM, (like I've never seen before) in a plant from a whiskey barrel with a huge portion still remaining with no evidence of the same infestation?

Chris? You have any ideas?? BTW--I can't wait to get the 'Fantasy Island'!!! It HAS to be the last hosta I buy, unless I give away some of my duplicates--which could be done--MAYBE!! ;^))

As I looked at the pics and read Jan's post I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Here we go again, only this time it's earlier than usual. I've been so proud of myself because I haven't seen one slug all week. My diligence has paid off. But now I hear the nems are back.
I'll check mine tomorrow and see if all the time and money that I've spent on treatments have paid off this year.

There are systemic Bayer products which have Merit in it. Chris from Hallson's wrote that Merit is able to fight nematodes. I sprayed one product Bayer Advanced Complete Insect Killer once, will do it again end of July. But will only put the granular stuff out today, sorry to be 2 months late. Bernd

Just checked all my hosta and 3 plants have them. (so far)

One on them is my beautiful Lil' Abner, which I love, but the worse news is that he was within 10' of my huge Sagae, Sun Power & Krossa Regal.

Also, within that danger zone is Grand Marquee, Columbus Circle, Twilight, Punky and my newly planted Corn Muffins & Camelot.

To say the least I'm not a happy camper right now. I have the water boiling on the stove to scald the hole.

Lil Abner was moved far, far away and I'm going to overdose it with everything I have and either nearly cure it or totally kill it.

I'm not heat treating anything this year. It just stunts the plant too much, not to mention it's so much work.

(I'm double spacing like Ken does. Makes it easier to read)

Sassy, since Chris from Hallson's wrote that Merit kills nematodes and the Bayer liquid product is systemic, then why do you not spray your plants with it and save all your plants. Lowe's and HD have that, and it costs only around $15, much less than your hostas. You could spray now and in 2 weeks and you are done with that.

I finally applied the granular version this morning. It is very late, but has fertilizer in it, and will fight those bad guys. I did not see any nematodes yet.
Bernd

I see something I have never seen before in my garden,and ditto,this year. Sorry to hear about your nematodes! My condolences! Phil

Bernd, I've fought these nematodes for years. It's been said that you can't completely get rid of all of them, but they can be controlled.

Last year I did notice an improvement from previous years. Time will tell what this year will bring.

This area had a very rainy spring and if overhead watering is the way nems are spread....I predict there will be an increase of infestation seen.

I haven't used Merit in two years, only because I forgot to order it. With my mother living with us and on hospice now, my mind is shot. I do like Merit though and have used it in the past and will again.

Below is a list of the treatments that I've used in the past:

Bayer Liquid product (forgot the name)
Bayer Advanced 2 in 1 Systemic granular
Heat treatment
10-15% overnight bleach soak
Zerotol
Dr. Donner soap & mouthwash solution
Merit Granular
Neem Oil
Plants left in black bag in a hot black car for 2 weeks
Removed affected leaves.

*****************************************************

This year I treated with:

Bayer Liq at the unfurling of leaves
sprayed with Neem Oil
sprayed with Zerotol
sprayed with Neem Oil again
and spread Bayer Advanced granular today.
This isn't even the middle of July so I'm not finished yet.

As a nurse for 21 years, I think I have a pretty good understanding of cross contamination and sterilizing tools.
I spend a fortune on bleach alone.

One of the well known nursery guys sent me a list of things that I should try. I'll try to post it later.

I am a bit confused,if the Bayer product work's,why do all the other stuff?
Either it works or it does not??
Does it? :0)
cAROL

I am sorry to have started the nightmare. I think they are early because spring and summer have been so hot this year, at least here.

I don't use the Bayer stuff because I have a dog.

Last year I faithfully used the Dr. Bronner soap and mouthwash thing ( I have forgotten the proportions) as a preventative and never got any!

I have removed the affected leaves and sprayed all the hostas. Tomorrow I am going to dig up the infected ones, pot them and put them in sun for about a week. Then treat them with the same stuff and move them to a shadier spot for the rest of the year and see what comes up next spring.

Oh yeah, also pour boiling water in the holes and plant astible and something else there.

chris

cAROL, to answer your question..

All studies have shown that there is only one way to destroy nematodes completely and that is to do the hot water bath treatment and scald the hole and surrounding hole with boiling water.

All other treatments do not eliminate the problem, it just controls the problem.

We have our 8 year old grandson living with us, and we are retired, plus all other gardening work, so I forgot to do the Bayer Merit granular stuff, 2 to 3 months ago. But I used the other non-Merit Bayer Rose and Flower Care granulars by accident, also systemic, perhaps it helps. I would not do heat treatment and bleaching - too much work here. I do not like to do bleaching also because it might have stunted permanently two Dancing in the Rain, which are now smaller than they were 2 years ago.
Bernd

OK, I am probably going to look extremely ignorant here. But, I googled nematodes, and am now EXTREMELY freaked out!!! This link http://home.austarnet.com.au/~wormman/WLNEMA.HTM talks about humans contracting these things!!! Are these the same thing? What if my two year old puts a blade of grass in his mouth, that has these, or their eggs on it (he puts EVERYTHING in his mouth). Of course I try my best to keep him from doing so, but it is inevitable, he gets by me now and then. Or, what if these things are on my beans, tomatoes, etc??? Kinda scary!

Hi, Insecticides that are available today can simply help to suppress symptoms but you won't ever get rid of the nematodes. Also, once they are in the soil, it is near impossible to completely get rid of them, so if you go ripping out hostas that won't get rid of the problem. Heat treatment of the soil is the most effective, but even then it won't get every last one of them. Heat treating of plants can be completely successful but can set the hostas back quite a bit. Bleach use is anecdotal and has never been proven to do anything to nematodes in soil or plants and its overall effectiveness is rather doubtful.

My thought for the garden is that nematodes are a bug so if you treat for them with insecticides so that you don't see them, or at least delay the onset of symptoms, then it is livable. With all the trading that goes on (such as the secret nematode, I mean hosta, swaps) then you are going to have them eventually. In nurseries it is a different story, they should always work to be nematode free, but without any 100% effective controls and the amount of nematodes that are floating around in hostas and other plnats it gets tougher all the time.

And there are many different nematodes out there, on hostas these are foliar nematodes. They are not a threat to humans. They also make plants unsightly and don't stunt them or affect their growth otherwise.

Chris

Great post Chris.

I'm sure that put Cricket Love's mind at ease knowing that nematodes are not a threat to humans, at least physically.

Speaking from experience, I think they ARE a harm to my mental health, right along with my voles & raccoons. The slugs are not problem right now. yipee

And financially? They're killing me!

LOL

~Sassy~

Thanks sassy,I remember last year you doing all that you did, with your super, duper sprayer, I hope you will be nem free this year.
cAROL

Chris-e, are you saying that when you sprayed last year you had none, yet you didn't spray this year and have them again?

I heat treated a few last year. One small/mini, a few one eye new ones, and a Lakeside Beach Captain that was a few years old yet hadn't noticed them before in it. Also a three year old Tracy's Emerald Cup. Too soon to tell if it worked. No noticeable setback with the mini and new ones, but LBC and TEC are smaller this year- actually both had a lot of eyes but the leaves are less mature looking. Not bad, though. I expect them to look good again next year.

If the nemes show up in any larger, established ones of mine, I will just throw in the towel and live them them, since I do believe it's just too much work keeping them out or even under control. They can enter your garden on too many other plants. The time their damage shows up is pretty much the time I concede the hosta garden to the slugs anyway.

I can't explain why one year there were none then -poof!- suddenly they are there this year!

Since Christopher has explained that they live in the dirt, I imagine that this year they just happened to hit a couple of plants. I found three more affected plants yesterday.

Since I have a dog who goes everywhere and eats almost anything or at least tastes it, I have been reluctant to use anything poisonous in the garden. A couple of years ago someone, I think it was, oh rats! I just forgot. The lady in the Pacific NW who takes wonderful pictures. Anyway she or someone said they have had great success with the Bronner's soap and mouthwash treatment so I tried it.

Maybe it was a coincidence, but no nems last year. I treated about every 2 weeks. Then again, I have had slug problems before, nothing this year and I have not treated!
(shrug) I don't know!

I tried the heat treatment 3 years ago and it was gruesome. It was too much work, half the plants died and those that lived looked like tiny bits of TC. They are JUST starting to get back to size now.

So I am right now just pulling off the affected leaves and spraying with the concoction. It's too damn hot to do any more!

chris

chris-e, that wonderful person in the Pacific N.W. is McTavish! Where is she these days, anyway? Last I heard from her, she was feverishly planting the million hostas she got this Spring! Can't wait to see her pix of what she's done!!!

I thought I first contracted nems from hosta I purchased from a field-grown style nursery. Of course, they didn't show up until later and then it was GAME ON.

They all had them.

I completely freaked out, did the heat method, did the blah blah blah....my entire gardening year and love for hosta were lost to those silly little bugs.

I eventually threw all 10 plants out after boiling, separating, etc.

A couple of weeks later, I realized my brunnera, tricyrtis and ferns here and there had them too. yep, let me increase your freak-out and let you know that they are EVERYWHERE. lol They are not hosta specific and you can't get rid of them....ever - sad but true.

Needless to say, that was the end of my trading, but here is the good news....

The next year, if I saw a leaf w/ signs of nems, I tore it off and threw it away. Other than that, I decided to enjoy my hundreds of varieties and not lose the joy of gardening over some bugs I couldn't control anyway.

I would venture that a very SMALL percentage of us DON'T have nems...they probably just haven't shown up yet. They come in on SO many plants...you could go broke and hate hosta'ing if you get freaked out over them.

Funny thing is that in the last several years....not one sign of them again.

Go figure.

I'm curious to see if the ones I treated last year show signs this year or not. I left one infected one alone in a corner as an experiment. I hope I did it right....they didn't even die after the hot bath last year. I don't mind giving young or new plants "the treatment", but I won't be digging up anything that's mature.

YES, McTavish! Thanks J.

chris

Whew! I know I probably looked a bit ignorant, but I HAD to ask! Mind is now at ease! :)
Thanks!