Slugs & Snails
Risk near you, next 48h
See whether your local forecast favours this disease right now.
When it strikes
Treat, then re-check in 5–7 days
Pick off the worst material, apply the organic option below, and look again after five to seven days. If the spread continued, escalate rather than repeating the same treatment.
Carried by insects
An insect moves it plant to plant, so controlling the carrier matters as much as treating the symptom. Check for the vector before assuming the plants infected each other directly.
Safe to compost
No pathogen carries over on this material, so it can go on an ordinary heap with the rest of the garden waste.
When and where to look
Scout the planting while temperatures hold between 5°C and 22°C, with humidity above 80%, after rain or heavy dew, while the leaves are still wet. Risk builds after roughly 6 unbroken hours of those conditions, so the morning after such a night is the moment to look.
Rule these out first
Same category, and at least one host crop in common — so they are genuinely confusable in the same part of the garden.
The signs that lead here
Full problem lists for these crops
About
Slugs and snails are night-feeding molluscs that thrive in cool, wet, shady conditions, shredding seedlings, leafy greens and soft growth, and are most destructive after rain.
Symptoms
Irregular ragged holes with smooth edges in leaves and fruit, seedlings eaten to the ground overnight, and tell-tale silvery slime trails on soil and foliage.
Organic Treatment
Hand-pick after dark, set beer traps, lay copper barriers and grit, and apply iron-phosphate pellets, which are safe around pets and wildlife.
Chemical Treatment
Iron-phosphate baits are preferred; metaldehyde baits work but are toxic to pets and wildlife and best avoided.
Prevention
Remove damp hiding places, water in the morning so soil dries by night, encourage frogs and birds, and protect seedlings with barriers.
Crops at risk
Related problems
Slugs & Snails risk by location
Each location has a month-by-month profile computed from the weather archive: how many hours a year actually meet this disease’s thresholds.