In defence of slugs: gastropods are seriously misunderstood

Slugs and snails are the bane of every gardener who tries to grow strawberries, leafy and tuberous vegetables, flowering bulbs and soft-shooted perennials. But Britain’s gastropods are ‘misunderstood’, according to Dr Andrew Salisbury, principal entomologist at the Royal Horticultural Society, which announced this month that it will no longer class slugs and snails as ‘pests’. That is because – along with earthworms, springtails and woodlice – they clear up dead plant and animal matter in the garden and thus balance their perfidy with benevolence.

I am no slug-hater. I find them more fascinating than repellent and am especially intrigued by the great grey slug and its un-usual mating habits (look it up). But there are at least five very destructive species, whose toothed tongues rasp holes or shred the leaves of, inter alia, hostas, campanulas, delphiniums, dahlias, sweet peas, beans and lettuces, or burrow into strawberries and potatoes. Most damaging are the grey field slug, common garden slug, yellow slug, common keeled slug and garden snail.