Our most commonly recorded snails are Radix peregra - Wandering snail, Potamopyrgus antipodarum - Jenkins' spire snail and Lymnaea stagnalis - Great pond snail. These are all freshwater snails which live in rivers and ponds and represents the amount of specialist surveys carried out on these habitats. Our top recorded land snails i. Sign up to our E-Bulletin for local wildlife news, photos, project updates, events, jobs, volunteering opportunities and more!
We keep all our data securely in line with the General Data Protection Regulations. Read more in our Privacy Policy. Gardeners Guide to Slugs and Snails. Share facebook twitter email whatsapp. Credit: Tom Marshall.
Even wildlife lovers find it hard to love slugs and snails - especially if they're also gardeners. Here's our guide to a happy co-existence. Here are some of the weird and wonderful reasons we love slugs and snails. Credit: Emma Bradshaw. Learn how to Garden for Wildlife Learn more. Compost with large pieces of bark, sod, or plant matter, such as straw, attract slugs and snails, giving them damp cracks and creases in which to hide and lay eggs.
A layer of leaves, if left on top of the soil provides ideal slug habitat — better to till in the leaves to let them break down more rapidly. Mulching with coarse sand or is another option. Although it has little nutrition for plants, it is a rough surface for slugs to travel on and they will sometimes avoid it. Slugs are not picky eaters. They crawl along the ground munching anything digestible, from decomposing plants to dead animals.
In the garden, they may eat tender young plants, bits of compost, fungi, and all sorts of rotting matter, even paper or cardboard.
Slugs play an important role in nature, breaking down decaying matter and recycling it back into the soil. The banana slug , genus Ariolimax, is the largest land mollusk in North America and can grow as long as 10 inches.
It may be green, brown, whitish or yellow and sometimes has dark splotches or spots. Color depends on genetics, light exposure, diet, and environmental moisture. Three types of banana slugs include the California banana slug, the Pacific banana slug and the slender banana slug. Most slugs evolved from snails, losing all or part of their shell over time. The snail has an external shell made of calcium and other minerals. Some slugs retain a remnant shell beneath a soft outer mantle.
Theory holds that lack of available calcium and a damp environment contributed to the gradual loss of the shell in damp temperate regions. When the weather turns hot and dry, a snail can retract into its protective shell to prevent desiccation, while a slug must retreat into the soil or under vegetation to prevent drying out. Lightning Bug larvae, which look like beetles, will eat slugs. They have been observed following slime trails and then eating the unlucky slugs. These larvae also consume snails, other insects, and decomposing plants and animals.
Snakes, hedgehogs, raccoons, crows, snakes and some types of beetles all prey on slugs and snails. A slug which has been salted seems to dissolve or melt, but is in fact quickly desiccating, or, having all the water pulled from its usually moist body.
Pouring salt on slugs as a way to kill them, however, can be detrimental to garden soil and plants. How long do garden snails live? Slug and snail symptoms and damage Slugs and snails feed with a rasping tongue which causes irregular holes in leaves and sometimes in stems and flowers. Slug and snail control So, how to get rid of slugs and snails? Grit, coffee grounds, coal fire ash or crushed eggshells.
If you're using eggshells, bake them on a low heat in the oven first as this will make them sharper and the slugs and snails won't want to crawl over them. Hand removal. Pick up slugs and snails whenever you see them. Beer traps. Half fill a jam jar with beer. Sink it into the soil, with its rim approximately 1cm 0. The aroma never fails to attract slugs and in seeking its source the pests simply fall in and drown.
Biological snail or slug control. Slug species which live underground can be treated with minute parasitic worms called nematodes Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita. The nematode penetrates the slug and releases bacteria which kills the slug. They are available from many mail order biological control suppliers and are effective in getting rid of slugs for at least six weeks.
Slug pellets. An effective way to protect your plants from slug and snail damage is to use slug pellets containing ferric phosphate. During mild, damp weather, scatter the slug pellets thinly on the soil around vulnerable plants. If you are a parent or pet owner, we recommend that you keep slug pellets out of the reach of children and pets: both when you store them and when you use them.
Do not pile up the pellets under bricks or half grapefruit skins. How to prevent slugs and snails? Here are a few ideas to try to prevent slugs and snails on plants: Dead and rotting plant material. By clearing this up you remove food and shelter for slugs and snails.
Do not dig. By digging in the autumn you leave the soil rough and cloddy while the slugs are still active which allows those species that hibernate to move deep into the soil. If you have to dig, dig in the winter while the soil is cold and the slugs are less active. This helps to kill some slugs, and exposes them to predators such as birds. Beneficial creatures.
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