Slugs and snails

What you see

Irregular holes with smooth, slightly ragged edges chewed from leaf margins and centres, plus silvery slime trails visible in morning light. Damage appears overnight.

Damage

Seedlings vanishing entirely overnight. Big irregular holes in lettuce, hosta and strawberry. Grazed marks on ripening strawberries and low fruit.

Lifecycle on this coast

Active whenever it is damp and above about 5 C - so on this coast, most of the year, peaking in the wet months. Eggs are laid in clusters of pearly white spheres under stones, pots and debris. The vast majority of the population lives underground.

When to act

Judge by damage, not by sightings. Seedlings and transplants need protection from day one; established plants can shrug off a surprising amount of grazing.

Months: January, February, March, April, May, September, October, November, December

Plants it bothers

Lettuce, Strawberry, Basil, Cabbage, Courgette, Endive, Escarole, Sunflower

Natural enemies

Ground beetle, Hedgehog, Toad, Slow-worm, Bird

Remedies

Slug nematodes, Iron phosphate slug pellets, Beer trap, Encourage predators

The thing people get wrong

Ninety-five percent of a slug population is underground at any moment, so what you catch at the surface barely dents it. That is also why sinking beer traps flush with the soil is counterproductive - the ground beetles that hunt slug eggs underground fall in and drown, and you remove your best ally while catching a handful of your enemy.