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Plague of giant slugs
green fingered finch
Posts: 278
in Talkback
Last few evenings I have seen lots of enormous orange slugs slithering along the sleepers, lawn and paths. I can only imagine they have recently hatched out. I have collected about 20 each night but no doubt there are many many more. I don't think our hedgehogs will want to eat them, in fact I'm slightly concerned they might have eaten the hedgehogs!
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Rufus arion also known as the Large Red Slug - we have loads of them too! Don't worry, they're good guys - they're carnivores and eat the little slugs which are the ones that eat our plants.
They're out and about on damp nights at this time of year 'cos it's when they do their canoodling and make lots more Rufus arions - I love to see them - they're magnificent.
As they will also eat decayed vegetable matter, if you don't want to see them pop them into the compost heap.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Ugh yuk. Don't they eat plants then?? I imagined them happily chomping their way through entire trees. I saw 3 of them curled up together, must have been some repulsive slug orgy thing. So you reckon I should leave them be?
They don't eat fresh green plants. We have hostas and all sorts of tasty plants - the big orange slugs leave them alone - yes, the three you saw were 'doing what slugs do' when they get together.
I leave them be
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Ok I will try and leave them... Thank you for the advice
Are you sure they aren't Spanish slugs? They get huge and eat everything!
The big orange ones leave my hostas and my delphiniums alone - like you I only say what I have seen. It's the keel slugs and yellow slugs that seem to do the damage here. I do my best to get rid of them - I leave the orange ones and the leopard slugs alone (although I did take one to Snoodle's garden the other day
).
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
'no necesita hablar en español para cortar por la mitad' or, as I mutter to myself as I wander the garden with slug scissors in hand, you don't need to speak Spanish to chop them in half
We have Spanish slugs here too - they are voracious - I get rid of them.
The John Innes Centre (a mile up the road from here) is doing a lot of research locally into slugs and they have a very good ID chart here http://www.slugwatch.co.uk/?page_id=21
Superficially a Spanish Slug might be mistaken for an Arion Rufus as it could be described as orange-ish , but the Spanish Slug is a muddy brownish orange, whereas Arion Rufus is a bright orange.
Was the one on your kniphofia really this colour Verdun?
or was it more like the ones here?
http://www.slugwatch.co.uk/?portfolio=spanish-slug
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.