Leopard slugs

[Return2thebasic]

I read more than once online that leopard slugs are supposed to be harmless to the gardener's plants. But I kept finding them in suspicious places - near my healthy plants in patio.

Are they really harmless? Can someone tell me please?

Leopard slugs eat other slugs and rotting plants. Perhaps that’s where the other slugs are?

I'm glad I clicked on this thread as I just thought all slugs were pretty much a disaster for my plants. I will be sure to leave the leopard slug be in future.

Are they the giant orange ones

They’re the spotty ones.

I mostly leave the slugs nowadays. They’re food for hedgehogs and birds and (as I found out yesterday!) newts, of which I have many. So the slugs stay and I get over the chomped bits.

There was a section on learning to love slugs on last weeks Gardener’s World which is worth a watch. The leopard slug almost looked pretty, I’ve never seen one.

I’ll still use nematodes on my veg beds though, sorry!

I have more problems with snails though really. Hundreds and hundreds of the buggers. We throw them over the wall to the overgrown wild patch in a neighbouring “access” alley (noone’s accessed anything for decades, there’s a tree growing there!) but I’m sure they’re just slithering straight back over. I’m thinking of writing dates on them to see if it’s the same ones!

My hedgehog won’t eat slugs. Only his specialised hedgehog food. It makes me laugh looking at the camera footage we have at night and there are slugs literally moving past his nose and he opts for some Spike’s biscuits instead.

I'm so glad I found this out! Does anyone know if the small white slugs are a variety of the leopard slug? I keep seeing lots of these (about 3 cm long and 0.5 cm thick, but blueish white) in my garden at night.

Maybe the leopard slugs are why your plants look healthy, OP!
According to wiki
Limax maximus is omnivorous. It is a detrivoree^, cleaning up dead plants and fungi,[6] and a carnivoree^ known to pursue other slugs at a top speed of 15 centimetres (6 in) per minute

I've got an old tool box/stepstool thing under the bench of my arbour which I use as a table - I don't open it very often but it usually has some leopard slugs lurking in it so I leave it be.

Top speed of 15 centimetres a minute that’d be a thrilling chase to watch!

Same @LemonViolet. I just know it's the same ones slithering 'home' again to kill the rest of my plants and veg

I’m afraid I don’t trust any slug or snail.
I don’t harm them either mind, but I have no trust in them whatsoever when it comes to plants, the whole ‘some slugs are beneficial and predate other slugs’ line doesn’t wash with me.

They have destroyed so many of my plants over the years, all the nice chrysanthemums I bought a few weeks back were binned today due to them, ditto my gorgeous deep purple dahlia, my lovely pink alstroemeria I was so excited to buy is gone completely, Hostas, Echinacea, Dill, Basil, coriander, delphiniums, Lupins, the list is extensive.

The bastards ate four healthy Achillea plants right down to the ground, two have recovered and regrown and two have disappeared, probably forever.

@Powertothepetal I'm with you. There's no heartbreak like seeing a row of carefully nurtured dahlias reduced to stumps over night. It’s so indiscriminate and destructive. Zero tolerance from me, I shall continue to launch both snail and slug over our back fence and onto the garage in the manner of a spin bowler.

@Wallywobbles

Are they the giant orange ones

No - the giant orange ones are plant devouring bastards. Two of them have nearly completely defoliated my entire potato patch.

The leopards are spotty/stripy, with a cream body, and dark brown markings.

@Powertothepetal

I’m afraid I don’t trust any slug or snail. I don’t harm them either mind, but I have no trust in them whatsoever when it comes to plants, the whole ‘some slugs are beneficial and predate other slugs’ line doesn’t wash with me.

They have destroyed so many of my plants over the years, all the nice chrysanthemums I bought a few weeks back were binned today due to them, ditto my gorgeous deep purple dahlia, my lovely pink alstroemeria I was so excited to buy is gone completely, Hostas, Echinacea, Dill, Basil, coriander, delphiniums, Lupins, the list is extensive.

The bastards ate four healthy Achillea plants right down to the ground, two have recovered and regrown and two have disappeared, probably forever.

I know! That's why I posted this. I know all what's said online. But just have hard time to trust any SLUG!

By the way, I found chilli powder does work. But has to be put around the plant A LOT. I even shook quite some on the lower level leaves. Not sure about complete protection, but at least 80% worked.

[quote CheerfulBunny]@Powertothepetal I'm with you. There's no heartbreak like seeing a row of carefully nurtured dahlias reduced to stumps over night. It’s so indiscriminate and destructive. Zero tolerance from me, I shall continue to launch both snail and slug over our back fence and onto the garage in the manner of a spin bowler.[/quote]
I read somewhere the slugs/snails have memory for "home"... So be careful when you just throw them over the fence...

Slugs are dangerous for hedgehogs, they can give them lungworm. Hogs will only eat slugs if they are desperate.

@joangray38

Slugs are dangerous for hedgehogs, they can give them lungworm. Hogs will only eat slugs if they are desperate.

@joangray38, I didn't know that. I've heard lots of online comments about hedgehogs in garden to keep slugs in check. The lungworm thing sounds horrible...

I may consider to make a mini pond in my very small garden next spring and introduce some tadpoles!

I've heard lots of online comments about hedgehogs in garden to keep slugs in check. The lungworm thing sounds horrible...
Me too, dogs are at big risk of lungworm from slugs aswell.
Horrible bloody things they are.

I may consider to make a mini pond in my very small garden next spring and introduce some tadpoles!
I wouldn’t introduce any animals, they will come by themselves.
I put a small amount of frogspawn in my pond thinking I could introduce frogs.
Unfortunately unbeknownst to me the newts had already arrived and promptly ate the frogspawn...

And I have to say, while I don’t regret building a pond at all, my pond has a thriving newt population and I still have to be extremely careful what I plant because of the huge population of slugs.

Newts and frogs and toads are overrated for slug control imo and if you decide to make a pond I wouldn’t do it purely for slug control as I suspect you’ll be disappointed.

@Powertothepetal, thank you for bringing me back to the reality! Easy solutions don't exist......

They maybe a food source where your plants are or ideal resting conditions.
In have kept and studied them for
5 years and they have never even nibbled on healthy plants. But if plant leaves or other parts of a plant are decaying they will take care of these dining plant part.

I have dozens of newts and thousands of slugs