Slug and snail controls on trial - Kitchen Garden Magazine

The project, which will test six different strategies and is the first of its kind to be conducted under garden conditions.

A year-long research project, designed to help gardeners combat slugs and snails more effectively, has been launched by the RHS. In seven of the past ten years slugs and snails have headed the RHS’s annual list of the top garden pests, which is based on enquiries to the charity’s Gardening Advice Service.

The project, which will test six different strategies and is the first of its kind to be conducted under garden conditions, will help to identify which combination of treatments can provide the best results for gardeners. The six strategies being tested are:

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1. No treatment (as a ‘control’ to compare the other results with)

2. Cultural management only (a mulch around the plants)

3. Mulch plus metaldehyde slug pellets

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4. Mulch plus ferric phosphate slug pellets, which are organically approved

5. Mulch plus nematode biological control applied reactively (once damage is seen)

6. Mulch plus biological control applied preventatively (regularly from early spring)

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The assumption is that multiple control strategies, otherwise known as integrated pest management, are likely to produce the best results. Find out more at http://press.rhs.org.uk/RHS-Science-and-Advice/Press-releases/Royal-Horticultural-Society-and-BASF-Launch-Landma.aspx

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Steve Ott

Steve Ott is editor of Kitchen Garden magazine and started his career as a professional grower, producing everything from cut flowers to vegetables. He has been growing fruit and veg all his life and spends most of his spare time in his garden in the East Midlands. He loves to experiment with crops and varieties he has never grown before and when he isn’t gardening is to be found out in the countryside bird watching and walking his dog Ted.