Slugs and snails - know they enemy

There is an old saying ‘In order to conquer thine enemy, one must first know thine enemy’ and perhaps the same rings true for slugs and snails, so knowing a little about these avid consumers might just strengthen your advances in keeping them under control.

Combating their voracious activities may seem like a full-time job for Irish gardeners as few pests are as destructive and non-selective as slugs. Both slugs and snails are hermaphrodite meaning each one is both male and female, and all possess the ability to lay eggs. These translucent white eggs can often be spotted in the soil, in compost heaps and other dark, damp places. Up to 500 eggs per slug may be laid in a season and it can take as little as three weeks for these to hatch into tiny versions of the adults, depending on the time of year. While snails tend to hibernate in the winter, slugs can be active all year round both above and below ground. Both are mostly nocturnal feasters and move along on one single muscular foot, secrete slime and are not the cutest of creatures. However despite their bad reputation, slugs do provide some ecological benefits and are an important food source for many animals. They are also decomposers of organic matter and vegetation, which is important for recycling nutrients through the food chain. And not all slugs are bad, with the garden slug (dark grey to black in colour with yellow orange below), the field slug (light grey/fawn colour) and the keeled slug (grey, dark brown or black with distinct ridge down the back) thought to be the ones that wreak the most garden havoc.

SLUG CONTROL