Snails and slugs

Did you know that one in five of Britain's gardeners admitted to dropping their snails over the fence? How naughty! And it doesn't work either. They just crawl their way back. However, a study in the Physica Scripta journal shows that if the snail is moved by a much greater distance, of around 20 metres, it no longer returns. It seems that at this distance, the snail's homing instinct is nullified. We decided to try it out and had a bit of fun re-housing our snails in nearby parkland.

Some other good remedies are:

Remove weeds & rotting veg so slugs can't hide under them

Epsom Salts will deter them and also prevent magnesium deficiency in your plants

Make friends with your local barber and ask for the hair clippings! Sprinkle a thin layer of human, cat or dog hair around your plants and the slugs won't go on it. The hair will also add plant-feeding nitrogen to the soil as it slowly decomposes.

Open a Bar! Fill a shallow bowl with beer and wait overnight, then dispose of the boozy snails and slugs in the morning.

Eat half a grapefruit for breakfast and then use it as a slug trap. Put a couple of small holes in each side and then turn it upside down. Slugs love grapefruit and will gather to eat it, instead of your plants. Put the grapefruit, slugs and all, onto your compost.

If you have any watery areas or a pond in your garden, then visiting toads and frogs will snack on snails and slugs. Yum!? Avoid pesticides on your plants though or that will deter the frogs.