Erin McDaid’s article Gardening, slugs and wildlife in our Spring 2010 issue provoked some comment from readers – Erin was clearly right when he said, “Slugs and snails are the bane of many gardeners’ lives.”
One reader sent an interesting observation on modern gardens:
“For years my garden was fenced off to contain a dog and was home to a large population of slugs and snails. Since losing her I have altered my fencing in places to allow access to hedgehogs. I now regularly have several visiting and both my neighbour and I have noticed a substantial reduction in slug and snail numbers. My neighbour thinks that this year they will try not using slug pellets.
I think that fencing which keeps the predators out and has no environmental benefit, favoured today over hedges, has much to do with pest problems in the garden.”
There are many ‘organic’ slug remedies available from garden centres, as a quick web search will confirm. Most of these seem to be commercial variants of the metal wire, petroleum gel and gritty irritants mentioned in Erin’s article. A relatively new one is made from wool, as pellets which form a mulch when spread around plants; apparently raw wool fibres have microscopic barbs which irritate slugs and snails so they won’t crawl over it.
So, plenty of things to try. Erin and I hope you find at least one that works in your garden!