Toby Buckland: are slug-throwing

Inset: TI Media

The humble slug is taking to the streets to fi nd more unusual places to create havoc… and ultimately meet its maker

Toby Buckland TI Media

In Wrexham, slugs sabotaged a set of traffi c lights by wrecking the control board

Toby’s top tips

Shinkansen bullet trains were stopped on the tracks by a slug meeting a grizzly end inside a railway line switch box

1Start your slug patrols and put out organic pellets before the mollusc population explodes in spring, and you’ll keep on top of their numbers.

Slug to the finish

Tired of being treated as outcasts in gardens, molluscs are finding more interesting ways to die, as Toby discovers

2Clear leaf debris to the compost heap, as its slimy nature makes it a perfect hiding place for molluscs.

HAVE you seen the news? Garden Enemy No. 1 –the slug –has attacked the global transport network, taking its campaign of mindless mollusc-station from our gardens to the streets. In Wrexham, marauding slugs captured the control unit of a pedestrian crossing, shorting the power supply and causing the red, amber and green bulbs to flash like the lights of a demonic disco. And this wasn’t an isolated incident: in Japan, bullet trains were literally stopped on the tracks by a slug committing hari-kari inside a railway line switch box. Its charred remains were found next to the sleepers. I have no doubt scientists who study slugs –aka ‘limacologists’ (as if you didn’t know!) –might fear that these attacks are coordinated. But I’ve a hunch that it’s gardeners like, well… you who are really to blame. You don’t need a degree from the Miss Marple School of Criminology to know that gardeners are a sentimental

“ Limacologists may fear attacks are coordinated”

bunch, especially when it comes to killing at close quarters. While most of us are happy to use biological controls or organic pellets that do their damage out of sight, many balk at the thought of dispatching a slug while it gazes beseechingly from its stalk-topped eyes. That’s why so many are thrown over the garden fence or, when the neighbours are at home, on to the street outside. And this, Your Honour, is where the trouble starts. Faced with a desert of Tarmacadam or a barren railway line, an electrical box becomes a slug sanctuary that’s so inviting, it’s a wonder we don’t suffer from more gastropod-instigated traffic chaos. Having no bones, these canny

creatures can squeeze their way

through the tiniest of gaps, and while this Houdini-esque skill makes them

formidable pests, it also contributes to

their downfall.

Knowing that slugs are attracted to

tight spaces means they all behave in a

predictable way and can be dispatched

without any need for practising your

shot-put technique (see below). And as

we share 70% of genes with the humble slugs, that makes us just as knowable –if you throw molluscs over the garden fence, your neighbours do, too. TI Media

What a way to go…

SLUGS love the undersides of pots, and if a plant is eaten you should lift/tip its container and look for the culprit beneath. Even if it isn’t there, scatter organic pellets under the pot, as it soon will be –as well as anywhere the soluble pellets are protected from rain. Biological controls work best in summer, when the garden warms up, so in spring put ou jars with a splash of beer in the bottom. The slu are attracted to the malt and, being sticky, can c into the beer, where they drown. Beetles and o friendly wildlife can’t, so they stay safe from harm. Beer is still an eff ective way to curb a slug’s adventures in the garden