Gardeners beware: slugs returning after dry weather to threaten strawberries

The Royal Horticultural Society is bracing itself for a surge in inquiries from its members about how to deal with slugs. Photograph: Nick Upton/Alamy View image in fullscreen The Royal Horticultural Society is bracing itself for a surge in inquiries from its members about how to deal with slugs. Photograph: Nick Upton/Alamy Gardeners beware: slugs returning after dry weather to threaten strawberries Wetter weather expected to bring surge of slugs out of hiding, just as strawberries experience bumper early crop Entomologists in England are expecting a surge in slugs coming out of hiding to munch the nation’s strawberry plants after weeks of sun followed by wetter weather has caused a bumper crop. The Royal Horticultural Society is bracing for a surge in inquiries from its 625,000 members, who write in with their garden gripes. Workers at the RHS have also noticed a spate of slugs in the charity’s gardens, including Wisley in Surrey. Recent hot conditions, including record-breaking heatwaves , forced slugs into hiding. But now, according to Dr Hayley Jones, the principal entomologist at the RHS, the gastropods will be re-emerging, ravenous, into the damp conditions caused by this week’s torrential rain. “We have had such a long dry spring that they are all going to pop up at once. Slugs are really good at hiding out when conditions are not ideal and then popping out,” Dr Jones said. She added: “They will be really hungry and all coming out at once into people’s gardens.” This is a bad time for a horde of hungry gastropods to be entering gardens; strawberries, for example, are fruiting early because of the sunny weather. Many people are also planting beans and lettuces after recent warm days. “Lots of vegetables are being planted at the moment. Strawberries are ahead of schedule for fruiting and slugs like to feed on them. A bit of leaf damage doesn’t make much impact but when they feed on the fruit that is a problem, we don’t want to be sharing fruit with slugs,” she said, adding, “The seedlings have only just gone out and if they get fed on now then it might slow down their growth.” However, gardeners should “ideally not” kill the slugs, no matter how irritating they are, Dr Jones said. “They are just part of garden biodiversity trying to survive so we’d rather they didn’t get killed.” Instead, she recommends spreading straw around the strawberries as slugs don’t like crawling on it, and keeping unplanted seedlings in for a bit longer, and putting them higher up such as on a garden table. For those plagued by gastropods, Dr Jones also recommends: “Night-time searches to find slugs and relocate them, preferably to your compost heap as then they will be just helping with the recycling process.” Asked whether they could be deposited in a neighbours’ garden, she said: “I don’t know if that’s good for neighbour relations.” View image in fullscreen Recent hot weather has driven strawberries to fruit early. Photograph: Alistair Heap/PA “If you can’t be