Here is a cut and paste of a post I made last summer. I would spread some of this stuff around any hostas you think might attract cutworms. Early in the season before any damage appears:

Yesterday, I noticed some cutworm damage to a large Alex Summers I have in a pot on the patio. I was a bit surprised because I didn't expect cutworms in a pot. But this hosta is in a premier spot and I wanted to try to solve the problem, so I sprinkled some Spectracide Triazicide at the base of the plant.
This morning, I checked to see if there was any new damage. I didn't notice any, and I did find a dead cutworm right next to the plant.

Now that's what I call results

Cutworms turn into moths. The adult moths lay eggs, and the resulting babies are your cutworms. They feed until they are adults, burrow into the soil and emerge later as a moth. All of this takes about a month.
Therefore, any or all of your hostas could be affected, even if they are potted, depending where the adult moth laid their eggs.
using a granular insecticide works well, like esox48 mentioned.

Excellent! Thank you Esox48 and Hostarox!
~Bunnycat

scratch around in the soil near the emerging plant.. and you will only find one or 2 per plant ...

they are always around... i never took notes so as to say that they repeatedly come back to the same hosta ...

they turn into a moth.. before they do all that much damage ... if they still sell sevin.. i heard that works also ...

as always.. the cure is to buy a couple hundred more hosta.. so the few affected ones.. wont bother you as much.. lol

ken

Sevin is still available at any big box store and is lethal to cut worms and "fairly" safe for the environment. Anything that can be used on a small kitten is among the safest things available. The ingredient is one of the oldest flea remedies around.

If you put the powder in one of those big metal salt shakers just sprinkle around each hosta. Liquid sevin could also be used but to me, much more labor intensive to spray. Use it the first time around your last frost date and again, mid summer.

It also eliminates fleas and ticks in your garden/yard.

Bunnycat, your problem might be vine weevil rather than cutworm. If you have pictures they might provide better clues as to the exact cause of your damage.

Ken & Hijack~
Thanks for the tip on granular Sevin. If I can't find Spectracide Triazicide, I surely ought to be able to find granular Sevin, and maybe it will be cheaper. I have liquid Sevin, but rarely use it because I don't want to kill my bees. It's hard to find a time when they aren't around.

Pietertje~
I tried very hard to hide the leaf damage on the affected hostas when taking photos. The damage for the most part was on one area of each hosta. I deleted photos that picked up a lot of damage.
I do have one early photo of Jewel of the Nile that shows some of the damage. I had planted 2 single eyes about 10" apart, hoping they would eventually fill in and make a big plant. They both were the same size before chewing began. The one on the left with the more interesting variegation is the one that was decimated. The center of this hosta really took a hit.

Wolverine. Some damage at the bottom and center, most is at the back of this hosta.

Key Lime Pie. The damage is the center left. Some is hidden by other leaves.

Thanks!
~Bunnycat

Bunnycat, you weren't kidding when you said the photos don't show a lot of detail. Having said that, vine weevils -and certain species of wasps- tend to just chew at the edge of the leaf in not so nice half-moon crescents and I don't see any of that in these pictures. I just quickly scanned a few months of this year's pictures to see if I could find an example, but no such luck.

So, it's back to cutworms I suppose.

Where has my head been?!?

I thought that cut worms cut off the leaf near the ground and didn't climb up, eat and then climb down each day! LOL

Live and learn!!!!

Connie

Connie, the cutworms that wrap themselves around seedling stems to sever them might be of a different species. Typical cutworm damage appears as elongated holes on the leaf, like this . . .

Thanks!!! I hoped I wasn't heading for lala land before my time!!!

Connie

OK, I went Googling and found:

"Nearly all fruits, vegetables and ornamental plants can be damaged by variegated cutworms. Damage is especially common on hosta, petunia and other low growing, "fleshy_leafed" plants. Feeding on hosta foliage causes large irregular holes at the leaf margins or oblong holes within the leaf bounded by veins. Destruction of emerging leaves at the center of the crown can be nearly complete.

Variegated cutworms large enough to cause noticeable damage are usually at least 1/2 to 3/4 inch long. They ultimately grow to be 1 1/2 inch. Like other cutworms, variegated cutworms are nocturnal and feeding takes place at night or on very cloudy days, meaning few people have seen the cutworms though many are familiar with the large irregular holes noticed later."

So apparently all of the damage to the center of my emerging Jewel of the Nile could have been caused by cutworms.

Another article mentioned that leaf damage occurs before the cutting off of the plant (corn, in the pictures shown).

I also saw mention that some cutworms survive late into the season...and I believe that. While raking wet leaves off my gardens 2 days ago I uncovered 2 ugly things that looked like cutworms (until I squished them).

Bunnycat - Sevin dust is "dust" not granular. It is the consistency of flour, thus the need for a container to use as a shaker.

from your pix.. i would suggest you doth protest too much ...

jeez o' petes ....

i solve the picture problem by ripping out the one or two worst leaves.. and changing my angle ....

please... do NOT 'nuke' your garden for such minor damage ...

it is always very early in the spring.. it is almost always the first leaf or two ... by the time you get to 5 to ten leaves .... just rip out the first leaves ... and the plant will replace them.. and the clump will look fine ...

salt shaker... or perhaps a cheese shaker like at the pizza joint .... use a piece of wax paper to decrease the amount shaken out ... and use another piece to seal it for next time .... unscrew the top... place the wax paper .. and screw the top back on ... got that from alton brown and powered sugar shaker ....

tread lightly with the chemicals ... even if you can smear it all over the cat ...

as for the bees... i am not sure... but in my neck of the woods.. there aren't many bees around... in early spring when the cutworms are doing their damage ... and i wasn't aware of a second flush of them.. later in the summer.. most likely it is something else in mid summer.... maybe those weevil things ... again ... for me its a volume thing... IF YOU HAVE ENOUGH HOSTA >>> DAMAGE ON A COUPLE DOESNT MATTER... lol ...

ken

I get damage like that here from Grasshoppers also.

If you use any chemicals be careful with them. I used Seven once to get rid of "pill bugs" and it worked on everything. I use beneficial insects "Japanese Bettle, and Praying Mantis" and I had to replace everything after I used Seven. I even lost most of the red worms I throw in the gardens after a day fishing. I've learned the hard way and won't ever use chemicals again in the gardens. I just go out about 10:00 P.M now and hand pick the cut worms and salt the slugs and snails.

Sorry that should be Asian Beetles and not Japanese Beetle

A month ago I received a Lakeside Paisley Print. It already had a pip on it, and I potted it up. In the next couple of days I noticed what I now know was cutworm damage. I put diatomaceous earth in the pot and moved it to onto a table on the patio. I kept seeing damage, and after almost all the leaves were gone, I saw a cutworm in the center of it. As far as the hosta's health, will it be permanently affected by having almost no leaves? (Newby - zone 7b)

Nice hostas, Bunnycat!