| Slugs and snails
      Top l to r: brown-lipped snail, great black slug; bottom l to r: discus snail, common garden snail© Top l to r: Roger Key/English Nature, Bob Gibbons; bottom l to r: Roger Key/English Nature, Garth CouplandSlugs are essentially snails without shells. These closely related groups are generally hated by most gardeners and some species do undoubtedly cause considerable damage to plants. However, others feed primarily on dead or decaying vegetation. This means that the very tidy gardener is likely to suffer more from the activities of slugs and snails than those who are prepared to leave dead vegetation around. In its absence, slugs will have no choice but to go for healthy young growth. Among the many species which eat snails and slugs are song thrushes, common frogs, common toads, grass snakes, common shrews, hedgehogs and harvestmen: all of which should therefore be encouraged in the garden. Centipedes and great crested newts also eat slugs, as will badgers, and indeed ducks, but the most useful natural predator of all may be the slow-worm which shows a preference for the small white slug that so loves tender vegetables. Slow-worms will also tuck into snails. Hundreds of measures have been proposed as slug deterrents but none seems 100% successful. Poisons such as slug pellets may kill non-target species, including those that help to keep down slug numbers. Small plants can be reliably, if laboriously, protected by inverting pots over them. Larger ones can be made secure overnight with the aid of plastic bottles with the tops cut off. Beer traps certainly kill slugs mercifully, as does bran, if less kindly, but both may also concentrate slug populations unhelpfully. Nematodes parasatise slugs and can now be bought from specialist suppliers. However, they are rather expensive and need to be applied regularly. Copper wire placed around plants does seem to work. One has, in the end, to admire the slug; and to wonder how long it will be before its mucus is used in a commercial lubricant, if it is not already! PredatorsBadger, Bank vole, Birds, Black clock, Black-headed gull, Blackbird, Cantharis pellucida, Common frog, Common lizard, Common shrew, Common toad, Cryptops hortensis, Devil's coach-horse, Dunnock, Grass snake, Great crested newt, Great pond snail, Grey heron, Hedgehog, Jackdaw, Leiobunum rotundum, Little owl, Magpie, Mallard, Mistle thrush, Moorhen, Pheasant, Rabbit, Rook, Slow-worm, Smooth newt, Song thrush, Violet ground beetle, Water vole, Wood mouse, Yellow-necked mouse Slugs and snailsBrown-lipped banded snail, Common garden snail, Discus snail, Garlic snail, Great black slug, Great pond snail, Hairy snail, Wandering snail |
