Deer and HVX??

[twoblackdogs]

My bad. I had this beautiful big Striptease - sigh - which had HVX that I hadn't gotten around to destroying. I have been gone for the last week or so for work and have come home to find the deer had really decided my hosta were wonderful since I'd slacked on my Liquid Fence & Replex routine. The HVX Striptease was in one of the beds that had been heavily sampled.

So - here's my question. Since the deer chomped on Striptease and then probably chomped on the hostas immediately surrounding it, what's the chances of the deer spreading the sap from Striptease to other plants they then chomp? Probably minimal, but I just chucked the Striptease and will watch that bed next year.

DH is trying to figure out how to drop a couple of the deer in our yard with a shot from his bow since a couple of them are nice size bucks. Unfortunately we're still in the city limits!

[anitamo]

This question has come up before (either here or one of the other forums I frequent) and the feelings are mixed. IMHO, I say, sure, deer or any other animal that grazes on our plants, can spread the virus. Since HVX is spread through live sap, and the sap would be in the animal's mouth, it could spread to the next plant that way. It would be really freaky if they find that slugs can spread the virus. Now, how can we prevent that??? Shudders!!! I'm not positive, but I thought I read somewhere that Dr. Lockhart (???) is testing to see if animals (or was it slugs?) can spread HVX. Don't quote me here, but I think it was something to that effect. In any case, by leaving an obviously infected plant in the garden, we're leaving it open to the spread of disease in more ways than one. That's why I immediately grab the shovel when I strongly suspect HVX on a hosta. But these days, they all look suspect. LOL. Good luck to you.

[poppi]

I would agree that it is possible. I also wonder that if they chomp one that has nematodes...can they spread the bugger to another hosta . I'm thinking they can but it may not be likely.

[Hank Zumach]

Another amateur opinion...since nematodes are tiny worms, it seems unlikely that slugs would spread them. Also, since slugs don't travel a great distance, if there are nems in a plant in their travel range, the nems are probably already also in the soil and in the adjoining plants.

[Chris_W]

According to Dr. Lockhart, slug saliva instantly breaks down plant proteins, including viruses, so they can't spread HVX.

So far there is only speculation that deer or rabbits can spread it. We believe it is possible, but we don't really know how probable it really is.

I wouldn't throw away any of the plants yet, unless they are totally disposable, but consider them suspect from now on. And sometimes NOT knowing is worse than knowing

By the way, the idea of researching whether or not deer spread it has been suggested but nobody is actually working on it.

[anitamo]

Thanks for clearing up that last part Chris. I wish someone with the knowledge would work on it, though.