They tend to lay eggs in clusters and often geometric shapes, so easy to spot. I’ll bet you’re keeping a close eye on your possible striped seed source.😳

tj

You bet I do, TJ, fortunately they appear to have exhibited a low level of mobility, thus far confined to this one plant only. Another hosta in a pot a mere 18 inches away has not shown any signs of infestation. The striped pods are almost 30 ft away, keeping my fingers crossed and my eyes peeled...

Pieter

so what were they eating.. the green tissue of the pod ... i doubt the black of the seed wing ... any evidence of the hard seed itself ...

full fall cleanup and perhaps treat the soil of those two... before winter??? ... do you strip all leaves after dormancy.. im not familiar with what is done in your zone ...

based on whats on the rick.. it looks like those pods were ready for harvest anyway... did the seeds feel mature... hard ??

ken

They are very similar to Squash bugs. My Aunt used to grind them up with water and spray it on her squash. She said it worked well. If I remember correctly, they deposit their eggs on the bottom of leaves. Either scrape them off or remove the leaves they are on.

ken, according to the internet, stink bugs suck the juices out of their target.

bkay

can they suck any juice out of a mature hard seed???

my point was... if the seed is mature.. then just harvest them ... and cut off the rest of the plant ... instead of using chems or what not ... .of course.. you dont want to cut the plant too far back.. and trigger a new flush.. just before dormancy .. hence my qualification about his zone and my lack of knowledge of such

he's using safer ... which i presume is not chems.. but it still costs money ... and foremeost.. i am a cheap .... you know what .. lol ...

ken

ps: H. rectifolia var. pruinosa .. is this actually a species.. per the latest iteration of schmids work?? .. if so... shouldnt it come true to seed??... or is that why he might want to grow the seed .. to confirm or deny such .... im just to lazy to do the reference work ... and probably wouldnt mention it.. if it werent pieter ... i dont know how it converted to italics.. but its kinda cool.. lol ...

I get the brown squash bugs instead of these green ones... but if your important plant has already boomed and been pollinated, you can use floating row cover or netting to help keep the bugs out as the important seed develops. Keep plucking/killing every one you can, and keep scraping the eggs off the plant to help disrupt the ones currently breeding.

I did not know these bugs ate any part of the hosta. Do they just eat the pods, or are they known to munch on leaves or any other part. I just saw one yesterday on the recycle cart. Never seen one in the garden. I hope your other pods will not be affected.

debra

the key is the spike in that population.. that makes what they do so apparent ... i presume usually.. there are so few. if they are taking a nip here and there ... that you probably wouldnt even notice ....

a deb notes .. this is so uncommon.. the hosta mavens never heard of such as a problem ...

ken

Deb- as bkay pointed out, they are a sucking insect so they don’t eat leaves. These were likely sucking on the scapes or climbed there to molt.

tj

I'm the first one to admit I'm puzzled over the dropped pods and seeds I see around this particular plant. It's in a large planter/pot and it's a specimen I received from Don Rawson a few years ago, back in 2016. Don supplied it as a named species although its origins are not documented/vouchered at this time but I'll endeavour to find out. And yes, it's in George's tome. The only 'vermin' I have noticed around said plant are the stink bugs and the only thing I can think of that would be the likely source of the nibbling and dropped pods I have seen all around it. I have seen perhaps a total of about 8-10 specimens -who have all been dispatched- and have been going around nightly since discovering them a week or so ago to inspect the plant for evidence of more and check the bottoms of all the leaves for egg clusters of which I have yet to find any. I'm still somewhat at odds with myself over the finger pointing to the stink bugs for the damage but it's the only thing that comes close to making sense. For the number of specimens I have seen they certainly have been busy-bodies.

Ken, since I've been posting and hosting Don Rawson's Hosta Lists -since around 2008- I have become more aware of the need to properly differentiate between species and cultivars/hybrids/sports and how that is reflected in the written form. Yes, it is perhaps pedantic, but I guess that's the Virgo in me.... If you go through my postings you'll find I always make an effort to put named varieties in brackets, garden sports in quotes and species names italicized, usually including the shortened Genus form H. even though strictly speaking it isn't necessary since this forum has its discussion supposedly limited to the Genus Hosta.

Pieter

I'm beginning to suspect the real culprit to the damage I have seen here is more of a furry nature, as in mice. What makes me think that is the size and shape of the chewing marks on the damaged pods. Initially the pod damage appeared to be limited to this one plant where I observed the stink bugs and put one and one together but I think I've come up with three instead of two. Dropped and chewed pods and heads have now been observed on another hosta as well as an echinacea and I'm starting to lean towards the damage being done by small 4-legged furry creatures.

Pieter

If you go through my postings you'll find I always make an effort to put named varieties in brackets, garden sports in quotes and species names italicized, usually including the shortened Genus form H. even though strictly speaking it isn't necessary since this forum has its discussion supposedly limited to the Genus Hosta.

==>>

God's work.. and i appreciate your effort in furthering it ...

i never bothered with the H. in my dBs.. crikey.. it was a list of hosta for god sake.. lol ... so im with you on that part ...

i also didnt have space on labels to bother with it either.. i mean really.. you visit a garden with 1700 hosta.. you ought to recognize they are all hosta.. or what the hell did i invite you over for ... lol ... i mean... if you are confusing that Pinus parviflora with a hosta... can you share whatever you smoked before you got here ... lol ... or at least let me check that big gulp you claim is not a 64oz martini ...

ken

In early summer, I get tarnished plant bugs that do a number on the young developing dahlia buds and shoots and these become deformed if not for my diligence, fortunately the numbers of bugs at that time is generally low. BUT, now at the end of the season, their numbers are very high and they're literally sucking the life out of the remaining blooms, they win!

It was the discovery of these echinacea seeds that lead me to steering away from stink bugs being the source of the dropped hosta seeds and pods. Catching the stink bugs amongst the hosta pods led me to the wrong conclusion....this is a rodent's efforts.

Pieter