Sales will stop in Summer 2019 (which I don't understand if this ban is in place from spring!) and then a further 12 months will be allowed for supplies to be used up. Only those using permanent greenhouses will be permitted to continue to use the metaldehyde pellets where birds cannot easily get them. This in itself seems very short sighted given that slugs and snails will likely leave the greenhouse after consuming the pellets and then potentially poison wildlife.
Mr Gove said, "I recognise that significant effort has been put into encouraging growers and gardeners to use this pesticide responsibly by the Metaldehyde Stewardship Group. However, the advice is clear that the risks to wildlife are simply too great - and we must all play our part in helping to protect the environment. I encourage companies and growers to look at the alternatives, such as ferric phosphate, which is authorised and does not carry similar risks."
Metaldehyde is without doubt toxic to wildlife; hedgehogs, amphibians and birds have all be poisoned by eating slugs and snails that have eaten the pellets, or have eaten the pellets themselves. The problem of course is that while the blue pellets do reduce the slugs and snails if they, in turn, poison the other wildlife then there are less predators for the slugs and snails, which let their numbers increase. It is a vicious cycle that will now hopefully be broken.
If you want to use other barriers then growlikegrandad.co.uk has suggested the following methods. He points out that using egg shells is not a good idea because the snails eat the shells and it helps to strengthen their own shells against predators!
- A targeted approach to watering, to the bases of plants and not all the bed areas in between them, don't make slugs and snails a gift of damp soil which is easier to travel across
- Wood chip paths dramatically reduce slug and snail numbers and damage at Grow Like Grandad's allotment. He receives free deliveries from local tree surgeons which helps to keep costs down. If your plot doesn't have free wood chip ask your committee to phone a few local arboriculture firms, one will usually be glad of having somewhere to drop off their wood chip.
- Place some old scaffold boards on the ground near your crops and make a habit of lifting those every few days and destroying the slugs you find hiding beneath.
- Make a pond and encourage frogs and toads into your allotment or garden, Grow Like Grandad has an army of toads now (transported from home) and in 2018 he found only a handful of slugs and snails at the plot in the entire year (the garden was a different matter!)
My personal choice for trying to reduce the slugs and snails was to put a pond into 85a (I'm still debating doing this in 86a). I also have a hedgehog house, a wood pile and a wild bird feeding station; all of these encourage the local wildlife into my plot to eat the slugs and snails. In areas of the plot that I have barriers to prevent wildlife (brassicas under enviromesh and in the polytunnel) I sparingly use ferric phosphate pellets (also known as iron pellets).
I use Richard Jackson's slug and snail pellets from QVC. These pellets also have some Flower Power in them so that as they break down they add nutrients to your soil. I'm sure there will continue to be a debate about whether the ferric phosphate is safe but I'm not aware of any studies that say these pellets are damaging to the wildlife; although there are comments about the iron in the pellets being damaging to the soil structure, which is why it's so important to use sparing, as per the instructions. You don't actually need to lay hundreds of them anyway; just 2 or 3 around a plant is more than enough to control the few slugs and snails that get away from the natural predators.
I am personally delighted with the news and wanted to share it with you all, although I'm sure many of you had already heard. I strongly believe the the hedgehog population particularly will benefit from this ban.
Until next time - Happy Gardening x
