Slug and Snail Control

Slugs and snails consistently feature in the top three of the Royal Horticultural Society's annual Garden Pest List, cementing their position as one of the gardener’s arch-enemies.

The main topic of conversation across allotments and gardens this summer is the atrocious weather; atrocious for us maybe, but slugs and sails are revelling in the damp, warm conditions and their numbers seem to be as high as ever. And if our Kitchen Garden is a typical example, then plants in gardens across the country are suffering at the slimy 'hands' of these voracious molluscs!

Of course, there are multitude of products available to trap, catch and deter both slugs and snails - some organic, some not quite so friendly to the environment and other organisms - but the best control measures all occur naturally.

That's why we were delighted to find this little fellow (right) during a recent photoshoot at the garden. Bufo, as we've named him, is a common toad and a very welcome addition to the Kitchen Garden team. We discovered him in a pile of leaf litter and have since re-housed him in a carefully cracked clay pot, with a far more attractive Toad in the Hole - a real toad abode with style - in the pipeline.

Bufo wouldn't be your first choice dinner date though, as his peculiar tastes include insects, larvae, spiders, slugs and worms. We're hoping that he'll enjoy making inroads on the slug population and possibly bring along some friends for tucker any time he likes!

Of course, we'll continue to apply nematodes, test out other organic slug and snail barriers and traps and diligently pick off the pesky pests at every opportunity, but it's good to know there's a hungry Bufo dining al fresco every night too!