Slugs: Know Your Enemy

KNOW YOUR ENEMY! slugs Each slug lays approximately 500 eggs a year. Eggs are laid in clusters of two dozen. They can remain in the soil for years and then hatch when the conditions are right. Slugs are hermaphrodites: they have male and female reproductive systems. 30 There are species of slug in the UK Only 5% of the slug population is above ground at any given time. The other 95% is underground digesting your seedling, laying eggs, and feeding on roots and other seeds. Slugs can stretch to 20 times their normal length, enabling them to squeeze through openings to get at food. The average UK garden is home to over 20,000 slugs, and it's estimated that an acre of farmland may support over 250,000 DON'T PANIC! Here are some plants that slugs tend to leave alone. Although no plant is completely safe from the appetite of a hungry slug, these usually fare well and will remain reasonably unscathed. Dicentra Formosa "Cox's Dark Red' Geranium Pratense 'Victor Reiter Jr.' Astilbe Simplicifolia 'William Buchanan' Astrantia 'Roma' Penstemon "Garnet' Plantedd Support British Nurseries Plantedd is an online marketplace for plants. We bring together nurseries from across the UK on our website, so that gardeners can find great plants from great nurseries. Learn more at www.plantedd.com