August

Be a bit untidy

Don't be tempted to tidy annuals or

herbaceous perennials just yet. As a reward, sit and study the creatures that set up home there!

Slugs - wildlife gardening enemy?

There is evidence to suggest that slug control is a losing battle: an experiment quoted by Monty Don found that the removal of 27,500 slugs from one small garden had no noticeable effect on slug activity. Slug removal prompts slug reproduction! Can this be seen as a lesson for man? We reap what we sow: global warming (no more hard winter frosts to kill off slugs) and habitat destruction (fewer natural predators) are helping to lead the slug revolution!

• Encourage natural predation by providing the right conditions for slug and snail eaters - thrushes, hedgehogs/ frogs, toads and slow-worms.

• If you have to use other

controls, please, please avoid slug pellets, which spell death to more than slugs. Try to control as locally as you can with beer traps or other tastier alternatives for slugs such as bran.

• Remember, not all slugs are bad!

Written and illustrated by Sally Pyner

If you need any more information on any of the above, contact us on (01872) 245520.

We particularly want to hear from you if you have a wildlife garden which you would like us to feature in the magazine.

Wild Cornwall Page 7 No. 88 Summer 2002