Slug & Snail Facts
Slugs and snails are the most common pests in British
Gardens. Due to the cool damp weather, 2007 was a hugely
productive year for slugs and snails. A 2007 study by Bayer
Cropscience estimated that there were 15 billion slugs
across Britain. Each slug can eat twice its body weight
daily and lay 500 eggs a year. That means a single slug
can potentially have 250,000 grandchildren!
It’s pretty impossible to eradicate slugs and snails
from your garden. Even if you were to lace the beds with
toxic pellets and do nightly picking patrols, new creatures
would quickly glide in from neighbouring properties.
We
believe you have to learn to live with slugs and snails
in your garden. However there are organic, nontoxic ways
you can control their damage. Protect potted plants with
Defeet,
grow slug-resistant plants (such as hardy geraniums, lavender
and rosemary), keep your garden free of debris (where slugs
and snails live, feed and breed) and then accept there
will be some losses.
 Slugs and snails do play a necessary role in the ecology
of a garden. They break down decaying matter; disperse
seeds and produce rich compost like waste. They are food
for birds, frogs, toads, hedgehogs, ground beetles and
ducks.
Slugs
and snails are hermaphrodites (they have both male and
female reproductive organs). They produce slime to
assist mobility. There are 29 species in Britain, the fastest
of which is the Speckled Garden Snail that can travel at
50 metres per hour.
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