Giving plants a fighting chance to survive gastropod attack

 

MY garden always endures (mostly) snail and slug damage, but 2015 was exceptionally bad, with such a damp summer.

They're soft-bodied molluscs, snails having the hard shell, the two most populous being the common garden snail and banded snails, which are smaller with yellow, white and brown markings.

Slugs vary in size from the grey field slug, no more than 5cm long, to the large black slug (which can also be orange/brown or buff), which can be 12cm long.

All snails and most slugs live in or on the soil surface, but keeled slugs live and feed mostly in the root zone - the potato pests.

Both are most active after dark or in wet weather, and their slime trails and holes in plant tissue, made by their rasping tongues, will tell you of their presence. They're surprisingly good climbers.

Snails are less common than slugs in acid soil areas and, unlike slugs, remain dormant in winter, huddling together in protected places.

Reproduction happens mainly in autumn and spring, when clusters of spherical, yellowish-white eggs can be found under logs, stones and pots.

Common-sense preventative measures include transplanting sturdy plantlets grown on in pots, rather than young vulnerable seedlings; rake over soil and remove fallen leaves in winter so birds can eat slug eggs; go out with a torch on mild, damp evenings and pick them off your crops.