Are slugs welcome in your garden?
Slug pellets are now banned!
Slug pellets can no longer be sold or used in the UK, as of Friday 1st April, as they pose an “unacceptable risk” to birds, dogs and mammals, it has been announced.
They have been used against the slimy vandals of the vegetable patch since the 1940s.
But from today gardeners are banned from putting out slug pellets to tackle the pests.
Instead, they will have to rely on other methods to deter slugs that are targeting their prized vegetables and flowers.
Slug pellets contain metaldehyde, an organic compound that is toxic for slugs and other gastropods.
But metaldehyde slug pellets can no longer be sold or used in the UK because they can poison animals that eat the slugs, such as hedgehogs, birds and even dogs.
In March, the RHS announced they would no longer be classing slugs and snails as pests, saying they play an important role in planet-friendly gardening and maintaining a healthy ecosystem.
“The RHS is all too aware of the role that gardens have in supporting biodiversity and as such will no longer label any garden wildlife as pests,” Andrew Salisbury, principal entomologist at the RHS, told The Guardian. “Instead, there will be greater consideration of and focus on the role that slugs, aphids and caterpillars play in a balanced garden ecosystem along with more popular wildlife (or animals) such as birds, hedgehogs and frogs.”
What methods will you use to deter slugs from munching on your prized plants? Have you tried using copper tape to protect plants from slugs or luring them underneath an old roof tile with a piece of lettuce? How about egg shells?
