Weekend weather sparks slug warning

THE Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is sending out a slug and snail alert.

Because of the recent and prolonged dry period both slugs and snails will have been dormant.

However, with the forecast of heavy rain, the charity expects them to start moving about again and to be quite hungry and plants will be vulnerable.

The RHS suggests a number of ways to protect plants. For those who prefer more natural ways of control, the charity suggests that it will be necessary to water in a new batch of nematodes (Nemaslug) as any distributed previously will have died in the dry soil.

The nematodes used against slugs are microscopic worm-like creatures that enter the bodies of slugs and infect them with a fatal bacterial disease.

Barriers, such as copper tapes round pots or mineral granules and egg shells sprinkled around plants are also useful to discourage slugs and snails getting to the plants.

Alternatively, proprietary slug pellets containing ferric phosphate or metaldehyde can be used if the infestation is particularly bad.

For further information the RHS has a web page with more handy tips.

It can be found by searching for ‘slugs’ on the RHS site rhs.org.uk.