On Thu, 17 May 2007 13:22:12 +0200, "David \(Normandy\)"
wrote:

Do slug pellets (or poisoned slugs) harm wildlife? I've not had cause to
wage war with slugs here yet as their damage is fairly limited yet. There
are lots of birds and wildlife living around the garden, and I sometimes
find toads amongst the vegetables all of which are helping keep the slug and
snail population down. However, all this wet weather seems to be boosting
their numbers.

The quick fix cheap solution would be slug pellets if the slug population
becomes a large army of leaf munchers, but would that kill any of my garden
allies - the birds, toads, hedgehogs or other wildlife - do the creatures
avoid the pellets or poisoned slugs - can they tell if a slug is poisoned?

The nematode solution would be too expensive due to the large area to
protect.

There are two schools of thought. The majority of people here will
tell you that the blue pellets containing metaldehyde that are
commonly and cheaply available not only poison slugs, but other
wildlife such as birds, and that the poisoned slugs are themselves
poisonous. I have a book on hedgehogs (by Pat Morris, Whittet books)
which suggests that the hedgehog poisoning problem is at least grossly
exaggerated. Ever the sceptic, I would like to see results of a
properly conducted scientific investigation into whether they do or
don't harm other wildlife, rather than the rather emotional and hyped
claims made against them.

But to be absolutely safe, you can now get another pellet, also blue,
containing iron phosphate. They're called Ferramol IIRC, and the claim
is that when slugs eat them, they loose their appetite and simply
crawl away and die of starvation. The dead and dying slugs are not
harmful to birds, apparently, nor does the iron phosphate harm other
wildlife. But they're more expensive.

I'm not averse to using metaldehyde pellets and have used it in the
past, but I get the iron phosphate type nowadays.


--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net