For the first time in 25 years on my property I am losing a lot of hostas in which the leaves are being chewed off. Last night it was three good size plants - the night before the urn full of hostas as shown. It is happening in the part of the property where our dog does not roam. Deer are very rare in congested NJ town, but I have seen groundhogs and rabbits. Anybody have an issue like this?

I would be willing to trap and relocate some animals, but not kill them.

My neighbor has several hosta that look like that. He's seen the deer eating them. We live in a very rural area with lots of timber so it's normal. I've read that more wildlife are moving onto residential areas. Do you have a trail cam?

Because of the height and amount devoured, I would really suspect deer to be the culprit. Deer are quite capable of surviving in an urban environment.

Strong possibility its deer

I agree it looks like deer , I see more of them in the suburbs then up here in the woods now. I was down by Little Falls the other week and saw plenty of deer roaming around.

Went to a small town on the DELMARVA peninsula a few years ago to attend a ministers conference. They had herds of deer roaming around. We went outside of the church that was being used as the conference center and there were half a dozen deer just milling about. They weren't afraid of us at all. The pastor said the town was being overrun with them.

I haven't seen any leaves that have been chewed off in my front garden, but something's wandering through it and breaking off the whole stem. I'm going to get my Trail cam out and see if it's deer or something small that can be trapped.

Groundhogs do that in my yard. The only hostas that are eaten are within his area. He doesn't roam too far from the shed and he isn't here this year. I do get deer once in a while but they don't go for the hosta.

Deer do it to my hosta. They ate the blue mouse ears like it was some salad with yummy dressing and ignored the variegated large one (Maybe because there was a large pot in front of it)

Why am I constantly bringing up the topic of SALAD!??!?

Sorry I am a bit late in the game Bob but that is classic Modus Operandi of Bambi the white tail deer. I am in Chester NJ and I spray with Deer Out once a week and this year I missed for a few days and Bambi decimated about 15 plants. I have noticed a lot of development of vacant blocks in areas like Fairfield and Nth Caldwell NJ and when they clear them for construction the animals that shelter there become displaced. This may be happening in Nutley too. If they are just casual visitors you should be able to deter them with a bit of deer out every couple of weeks. I water mine with garlic water once a week for slugs which works out a treat too.

Welcome to the site!

I have had very good luck with PlantSkydd, we are surrounded by woods with lots of deer, so far the spray has worked great. Neighbors probably do not like the smell, but it goes away quickly.

PlantSkydd does work well. I have been lucky as far as deer go. They seem to be much more of a problem in the suburbs then here near the woods. I guess they have such a selection around here they for the most part leave my plants alone.

I have deer traffic through my garden nearly daily who snack on my Hosta, that end up looking just like yours, and they eat a variety of other plants. I use liquid fence and it has been very helpful although not foolproof. If we get heavy rain and I don't re-spray, the deer are chowing down again. It is also suppose to be helpful for rabbits but I don't know about other little critters.

I would say deer as some of mine looked like that also.