The Natural Gardener
Slugs aren’t all that bad, really, and yet they always seem to be top of the ‘most hated pest’ list every year. The truth is there are only a small handful of the UK’s 40 or so slug species that eat us out of house and home (or garden), while the rest go about their business as handy garden composters, harmlessly dispatching dead plants and animals. I know, it doesn’t seem that way when you pop outside excitedly to check on your new hostas to find, well, no hostas. But they really don’t eat everything in sight and only a few cause any real problems.
Slugs, who celebrate their own special week this week (see panel below), are fascinating animals; in my garden they’re probably about 90 per cent intriguing wildlife-watching opportunity and 10 per cent pest. These terrestrial molluscs sport many different shapes, colours, sizes and habits, though we tend to lump them all into one ‘pest’ category. It’s usually those small ones that nosh on plants while larger ones can be spotted helping you out in the compost heap. Take a look and see what sort you’ve got: the nicely mottled green cellar slug just eats algae, compost and mould (whatever floats your boat!) while the cream-striped, browngrey Sowerby’s slug devours any fresh seedling or lush lettuce you’ve got on the menu. Did you know they have thousands of teeth and can live for six years? The stuff of nightmares, perhaps, but also quite charming, don’t you think? Almost like garden pets. Well, maybe not!
Here’s a thought: slugs aren’t to blame for their plant-eating antics. It’s us who are actually creating problems for ourselves. The vast majority of plants they don’t eat, and yet we persist in providing them with their favourite, fastgrowing tasty morsels and then get annoyed when they eat them. We build slug havens with veg patches, fertile ground and lush leaves – it’s no wonder they go mad in some gardens. Of course, those with dry, sandy plots may wonder what the fuss is all about; they only like warmish damp spots and heavy soils. I suppose if you have a slug problem you might relax a little, accept them and work with what you’ve got. And don’t grow hostas and salads! Keep weeds down, grow (among others) unpalatable bergenias, foxgloves, geraniums, euphorbias, and encourage hedgehogs, birds, ground beetles and frogs who love to eat them. A few nibbles here and there won’t do any harm.
Of course, if it’s gone beyond a few nibbles the best controls are organic slug pellets and nematodes. The latter you mix into your watering can – harmless to anything else but slugs.
But my advice is to largely leave them be. Upset the natural balance of the garden and it can do a lot more harm than the slugs ever will.