Slugs

They are one of the biggest nuisances in the garden. Slugs are prolific and voracious, but it is possible to limit them, short of getting rid of them completely.

Slugs

The symptoms

Damage caused by slugs is relatively easy to identify; the younger parts of the plants have been nibbled and the margins of the bites are irregular. The attacked plants show signs of mucus, a sign of the presence of these molluscs.

Lifecycle

A slug can live for several years and stays active as long as the weather is humid and the temperatures are above 0°C. In hot weather, it goes into a rest period. Slugs are particularly active at night, and when the weather is overcast. When daylight breaks, the slug finds a humid and dark place, often even at the root of the plant that it has just attacked. Slugs lay their eggs in the autumn, one slug giving birth to possibly up to 300 descendants during the year (remember that slugs are hermaphrodites!). The eggs are buried in the ground, only a few centimetres under the surface.

How to fight it

In the case of a massive attack, only the use of anti-slug products will allow you to keep the situation under control. The most ecological product is the iron phosphate, which is without danger to other garden life such as pets and birds. It needs to be spread around the attacked plants and renewed after every downpour, the product being less efficient with humidity. Wood ash can also be used in the same way, but is less efficient. You can also inspect plants when night falls, (with the help of a torch!). Depending on your own convictions, all you have to do is to kill the slugs that you have found or to release them a long way away from your garden.

How to avoid slugs

Plants are vulnerable to slugs as they find places to hide nearby. Whatever keeps the soil humid and protected from daylight is likely to provide a hiding place for the slugs such as dead leaves, plastic mulch etc. You must not leave those nearby the most sensitive plants. Slugs are more likely to travel on grassed areas than on bare ones, areas on which they are more vulnerable. Regularly shaking the soil around the plants susceptible to be attacked reduces the risk of attack. Moreover, this can expose the laid eggs to winter frost, thus reducing the number of young slugs.

Good to know

To stop slugs from going up a pot, all you need to do is to place the pot on a reversed pot, the latter one being immersed in a saucer filled with water. This creates a kind of "ditch" which the slugs will not cross, as they do not swim! It is also possible to protect an area by circling it with a copper band going into the soil a few centimetres and going up 10 cm: slugs cannot stand to be in contact with this metal.