Surprisingly, not all Slugs eat your plants!

Most slugs are scavengers. They dispose of all kinds of waste, they can often be seen in and around your compost heap. Healthy plants are eaten by only a few species of slug. They are part of an important ecosystem that help feed birds and hedgehogs. Although there are over 40 varieties in the UK here's a little info on what each of the above variety eat.

Leopard Slugs are a gardener's friend. They don't damage healthy, living plants, but they do eat other slugs, including species that can damage garden plants and vegetables. By eating dead and rotting plants, as well as fungi, Leopard Slugs recycle nutrients and fertilise the soil. 

Yellow Slugs are detritovores mostly feeding on fungi, decaying plant matter, and vegetables. 

Black Slugs are the main culprit being omnivorous, eating fungi, animal faeces, algae, lichen, and living or decaying vegetation. They prefer temperatures of above 10 degrees Celsius. 

Kerry slugs feed on lichens, liverworts, mosses and fungi, which grow on boulders and tree trunks. They are usually found in the woods and are protected by conservation laws.  

There is a way to naturally deter them from your plants however, place a few slices of cucumber in a small pie tin in your garden. The chemicals in the cucumber react with the aluminum to give off a scent undetectable to humans, but drives garden pests crazy and make them flee the area.