"Take action now. What better way to spend a bank holiday weekend than going on a slug hunt."
While many slugs help condition soil by breaking it down and eat decaying plants - and even, in some cases, each other - others feed on fresh leaves and are regarded by gardeners as pests.
Gardeners can help prevent slugs from eating their plants by:
- Removing cover for slugs such as leaves and bricks
- Breaking up soil into smaller chunks so that it dries quicker
- Putting copper tape around plants
- Creating a rough area near their plants with crushed glass or sand
- Putting plants by ponds so water-dwelling predators of slugs, such as frogs and newts, can keep their population down
- Placing plants that repel slugs - such as those from the geranium family - next to those that attract them, including hostas
- Nematode worms - which kill slugs by feeding off them parasitically - can be bought online introduced to soil where slug numbers are high
- BugLife said slug pellets and other chemicals should be avoided because they could be poisonous to other animals, such as birds, cats and dogs
- If you do use slug or snail pellets, the Royal Horticultural Society recommends iron phosphate pellets because they are less toxic
Placing plants that repel slugs - such as:
Bergenia (elephant's ears)
Aquilegia species
Euphorbia species
Digitalis purpurea (foxglove)
Alchmilla mollis (lady's mantle)
Agapanthus
Fuchsia
Geranium species
Astrantia major
Dicentra spectabilis (bleeding heart)
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