This Spring you couldn't walk round my garden for amorous toads heading to the pond. We also have newts, slow worms and birds but they couldn't make an impact on the slugs if there were 10 times as many.
This Spring you couldn't walk round my garden for amorous toads heading to the pond. We also have newts, slow worms and birds but they couldn't make an impact on the slugs if there were 10 times as many.
Which is why I provide suitable habitat for their entire life cycle to make sure there are more than 10 times as many. I don't make this stuff up, been growing veg such as lettuce in the ground here for 15 years. Not had one single one slugged in the past 10. It takes time, some belief and a lot of commitment to have colonies of wildlife on a property that form an entire ecosystem, rather than just transient visitors.
I have yet to see a bird eat a slug...... Worms yes, but not slugs
Blackbirds and thrushes, robins, starlings, rooks and crows, jays, ducks, sea gulls and owls - amazing what a google search comes up with. All visit our garden on a regular basis.
I'm always intrigued by the hedgehog diet discussion as it is widely written that slugs are a part of their diet - seemingly more so in September and October although I'm not sure why. Perhaps other tasty morsels go awol at that time of year. The reason I raise this as we have hogs visiting almost all year round and I often take video footage or stills of them at one of the 3 feeding stations. The one we have in heavy undergrowth which is open to the elements (not an enclosed feeding station) attracts the fox (and often hog within minutes of one another) as well as small rodents and of course a small army of slugs but these appear to be completely unscathed after a visit by Mr Fox or Mr Hog. Maybe it's just a case of the hog food being more attractive and in the case of necessity they would revert to what's available naturally including slugs?
But is the information accurate? We had a runaway duck live with us for almost a year, and she was a Hoover for wood lice. She liked to walk round with us and we would turn over stones for her. She never looked at a slug though. We have lots of birds in the garden, but in the daylight. Most slugs are out at night. Some of the slugs are as long as a robin and bigger than my younger frogs and toads. They dwarf the newts.
But is the information accurate? We had a runaway duck live with us for almost a year, and she was a Hoover for wood lice. She liked to walk round with us and we would turn over stones for her. She never looked at a slug though. We have lots of birds in the garden, but in the daylight. Most slugs are out at night. Some of the slugs are as long as a robin and bigger than my younger frogs and toads. They dwarf the newts.
The larger slug species are not usually taken by amphibians, they prefer the smaller white and grey species, which are often the real culprits a lot of the times when it comes to damaged plants.
The large black species mostly hoover up dead matter. OK, if they find a row of fresh seedling, they just might munch straight through it, but mostly they are the gardeners friend.
Slow worms, frogs, toads, newts are all crepuscular, as slugs form a large part of their diet, they hunt when slugs are around.
Slugs are very often active in the daytime after rain.
Not sure why you would question the info as not being accurate. We could spend years watching animals to know what they eat by observation and still not get the whole picture. The information on diet would have come from examination of gut content. Hard to argue something does not eat something, when it is found inside it.
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The large black species mostly hoover up dead matter. OK, if they find a row of fresh seedling, they just might munch straight through it, but mostly they are the gardeners friend.
Slow worms, frogs, toads, newts are all crepuscular, as slugs form a large part of their diet, they hunt when slugs are around.
Slugs are very often active in the daytime after rain.
Not sure why you would question the info as not being accurate. We could spend years watching animals to know what they eat by observation and still not get the whole picture. The information on diet would have come from examination of gut content. Hard to argue something does not eat something, when it is found inside it.