For the longest time slugs and snails perplexed me. For every other pest I had a solution that got to the heart of the matter – it was the way I was feeding soil and plants that caused the pest, or there weren’t enough predators, but for snails I relied on Quash (iron + bran), the closest to natural bought thing I could find.
Yes, there are beer traps, boards left out, and chooks – as long as they find them themselves, but of all these cunning plans the most effective in my mollusc riddled patch, was night hunts in spring when populations exploded. Head torch on and bucket of limey water into which the molluscs go to frizzle. But that’s a champion effort at the end of a long day when I’d far rather be inside by the fire. As much as possible, I prefer to leave pest control up to nature.
Turns out I can. Turns out there are loads of predators for slugs and snails, (and the particular form of iron in Quash is really damaging to many of them.)
Predators
Lets start with the familiar ones – frogs, hedgehogs, thrushes, blackbirds, and starlings. All are generalist eaters for whom a passing slug or snail or three will do nicely thankyou. Same goes for mice and harvestman – both surprising, but true. Add them to the generalist eater list. Along with ducks who are voracious eaters of molluscs, but not everyone wants, or can have ducks.
Cannibalistic slugs and snails surprised me – and added another argument against slug bait. Have you ever seen one of those freaky large leopard slugs, they eat slugs! And, I’ve learned, there are tiny nematodes and mites that parasitise snails mainly, but slugs too.
But the great hunters of the day, and another huge surprise, are ground beetles. There are 30 odd species of them that predate either slugs, or snails or both, either as part of a varied diet, or solely.
Beetles need a generous leaf litter/ rotting wood/ well broken down mulch to live in. And here we get to the heart of the matter – where is the deep leaf litter? Gone, because it supposedly harbours slugs. Gone with the leaf blower and rake and off to the tip because its messy. This ancient, essential habitat and nutrient cycling space has been tidied away. We’ve mistaken the outside for the inside. Vacuum the floor – yes, please, but lets stop vacuuming the ground.
Think like a snail
Slugs and snails aren’t out to get you or I, they aren’t even out to get our crops. Most don’t even eat fresh plant material, preferring vegetation that’s on the decay, seeped in fungi. Do they turn to our veggies and flowers because we’ve hoovered all the dying, unsightly vegetation up?
Grey slugs are the ones – they’re the fresh shoot gobbling monsters. I cannot help but wonder if the same goes for grey slug as for aphids – are overfed plants that run with simple carbohydrates, the ones that get eaten?
The less I feed my soil and the more complex my living mulches become the less slug and snail damage I observe, even though there are slugs and snails about.
Most of our slug and snail strategies to date have had the opposite effect and paved the way for molluscs to rule unthreatened. Remove the mulch and save the day! Perhaps not, when the mulch itself could be dinner for snails, and home to their predators. Where is the evidence to support the relationship between no mulch and less snail damage? Which is a different thing entirely to less snails.
Here’s the thing – balance, in nature, isn’t about less pests, rather its more predators and less damage. When plants are rightly fed they become more complex and no longer tasty. When a diversity of predators arrive, pests no longer rule. Equilibrium is reached when there’s more life, more diversity, more complexity.
Solutions for slugs and snails
I’m delighted to announce that the solutions for slugs and snails are the same solutions for every other pest – to encourage predators, to stop overfeeding, and to stop using all the pest control products.
Wait until damage is observed before deciding to react or not, or if concerend e.g. planting peas – be pre-emptive set out beer traps, go on an evening hunt, get some ducks – but lets lay off the bait. Leave leaf litter where it falls. Keep mulching – don’t be afraid! Celebrate beetles. Most of all, celebrate life.