After a mild winter and wet spring, the UK should brace itself for a "slime wave" this summer. So warns Dr Richard Meredith, a slug expert who works for Bayer Crop Science, a leading manufacturer of mollusc-massacring products:
They like the rain and warm, and we prayed for rain, and now we've had months of it - and the slugs are thriving. If it carries on the way it is, we can expect to have a serious challenge with protecting crops.
Yes, it's his job to remind us that this problem – and his company's products – exist (Bayer has even produced a very handy "Slug Expert Guide"), but such news will still send a shiver down the spines of gardeners and farmers alike. Is there a greater sworn enemy of the keen horticulturist than Arion hortensis, the common garden slug?
Debate has long raged about the most effective way to deter or kill slugs. Of course, there is a sharp divide between those who favour "organic" methods, and those that chose "chemical" intervention instead. Each has their perceived advantages and disadvantages. For example, organic methods, such as beer traps (there's worse ways to go, I suppose), hand-picking at night and introducing slug-busting nematodes are all said to be "kinder" on the other flora and fauna that share the same soil as the slugs, but are arguably less effective than baits laced with metaldehyde or methiocarb.
Personally, I try to take a fairly laissez-faire attitude to slugs these days. My days of rage and tears are behind me. I now force myself, for example, to accept that a percentage of my potatoes will be stolen from me by these piratical pests. I don't like it one little bit, but I prefer to enter this (yes, somewhat capitulatory) deal with them rather than continue with the angst, torment and, frankly, fruitless efforts to eradicate them. I still relish squashing the blighters when I find them hiding under a stone or clump of vegetation, but I know they - just like the Black Knight in the Monty Python and the Holy Grail – have death-defying qualities (or, more accurately, reproductive qualities) to which I have no proven remedy.
But maybe you have stumbled on a better method or approach to fending off the relentless march forward by this formidable army? If so, please furnish us with the details. We must stand as one against this common enemy.
