Dear Readers, I confess to having felt very sorry for slugs and snails this year – it has been so hot and dry that I couldn’t imagine how the slugs, in particular, have been surviving. But clearly there have been a few out on the patio in the evening, because the paving slabs look as if they’ve been scribbled over with a graphite pencil. When the sun shines it sparkles away as if the whole patio was made of mica.

They may be popping out because my husband has been watering the pots with the watering can, and there are always a few dribbles, maybe enough to make moving about bearable. But this weather can take a terrible toll on our molluscan pals (well, my molluscan pals anyway) – this article in The Guardian describes the effects of the 2022 drought, which was nothing like as bad as our current  one. Slugs tend to lay low and bury themselves during hot, dry spells, while snails go into a kind of estivation (summer dormancy). Some will undoubtedly die, and some eggs won’t survive either. Still, one advantage of my garden is the pond, which helps to keep surrounding vegetation green and lush, and my guess is that the slugs and snails are hiding out here during the day, then emerge to silver up the patio once the temperature drops.

I also suspect that they’re eating the remains of the handful of dog food that we throw out for the foxes – though the foxes do a  pretty good job of clearing up, there will always be a few meaty crumbs for the other critters. To complete the circle of life it would be great to see a hedgehog, but no sign yet. I imagine those little guys are having to work harder for their food too.

In 2022, scientists were not too perturbed by the drop in slug and snail numbers – it had been a mild, wet winter, so more of them had survived anyway. That’s what we should be hoping for this year too, not just for the slugs and snails but for all plants and wildlife (and for gardeners, farmers and other people in weather-dependent professions). We rely on snails and slugs to clean up dead plant and animal matter, for all they sometimes take a fancy to our seedlings, so fingers crossed that they bounce back…