We’ve all been there – one day you are excited as a plant has just emerged from the soil, the next day disappointment as the tell tale signs of a slug attack with a chomped stem is all you have left!

Slugs love to come out in the rain as they need lots of moisture to produce their slime, equally they usually attack in the cover of darkness. Like most ‘bad things’, prevention is better than cure!

Our top tips for slug prevention include:

1. Water plants in the morning so there is less attractive moisture around by the time the slugs come out at night.

2. Do some companion planting by planting slug favourites (like strawberries, hosts and dahlias) next to slug dislikes (such as campanula, sedum, lady’s mantle, aquilegia and saxifrage)

3. Place slug barriers around plants – broken slate and copper tape are effective.

4. Encourage slug eaters to your garden such as garden birds, toads, frogs and hedgehogs.

5. Protect young transplants with cloches available from our garden centre.

6. Set traps  – scooped out half oranges or melon skins laid cut side down will attract a nice collection for your disposal or let them have a party by sinking jars of part filled beer into the soil near vulnerable plants – at least they will drown merry!

Our garden centres are stocked with lots of different controls to assist your plight from traps, to copper tape and chemical methods including slug pellets. If you prefer to be organic and are concerned about harming pets or children with slug pellets then consider a new product we are selling this year from Neudorff called Slugga Slug and Snail killer.

This product is great as it is safe to use on edible crops such as strawberries, lettuce, and vegetables. Additionally it poses no threat to pets, hedgehogs, worms, bees and other useful insects and it is approved by the Organic Farmers and Growers Association. This product is stocked in our Sidmouth Road, Clyst St Mary garden centre.