Disease carrying slugs hit Sydenham

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John H
Posts: 278
Joined: 17 Aug 2017 18:15
Location: Sydenham

Disease carrying slugs hit Sydenham

Post by John H »

Not as silly as it sounds. My beautiful little Jack Russell is one of the latest casualties. Lungworm is carried by slugs and snails and all a dog has to do, to catch them, is to sniff the trail they leave behind.

It appears the parasitic worm has been present in Sydenham for a while. On a national register Mayow Road is shown with a confirmed case. Now there will be another. It is a terrible disease and my dog's infection was caught only just in time. She was truly suffering but that only became evident when the disease was at its worst.

Apparently we are suffering an invasion of Spanish slugs. What is very clear is that these are a pest and need to be treated, by the authorities, as such. There needs to be a concerted campaign to eradicate these filthy creatures.

There appear to be numerous varieties of slugs and snails at large. I have no knowledge of the creatures but I was able to identify at least five varieties in my garden. One of those varieties has a remarkable capability to spring back into its hole in the ground at incredible speed when a light is shined on it. None of the propreitary treatments has any effect and the fallacy of beer ends up with you being further inundated. The beer simply attracts them. Yes a fair number drown drunk... but there are thousands to make up for the few that do. Salt kills them but it is impractical for the variety that spring back into their holes. The light you need to see them makes them disappear.

Perhaps the answer is for everyone in Sydenham to keep bright lights shining on their gardens for a complete year. However surely it is time for the local authority to be dealing with this. Pest control is one of their statutory responsibilities.
sparticus
Posts: 230
Joined: 25 Jan 2013 13:56

Re: Disease carrying slugs hit Sydenham

Post by sparticus »

https://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/7 ... ng-warning

It's those bloody foreigners again!

There are at least 25 species of slug found in the UK. Most of them are potentially vectors for lungworms. Lungworm is a nasty and potentially fatal disease of dogs but monthly application of Advocate is an effective preventative. Lungworms used to be rare and locally limited but has become more prevelent and widespread in the last few years. There are a number of possible reasons advanced for this- increases in slug populations due to reductions in predator numbers-hedgehog numbers have declined dramatically as have amphibians due to diease; warming and wetter winters due to climate change; increase in fox numbers particularly in urban areas- foxes routinely eat slugs and become infected thus spreading the infection through their droppings. As is usually the case, changes in ecological balance can have unexpected and far-reaching consequences.
Tim Lund
Posts: 6718
Joined: 13 Mar 2008 18:10
Location: Silverdale

Re: Disease carrying slugs hit Sydenham

Post by Tim Lund »

John H wrote: One of those varieties has a remarkable capability to spring back into its hole in the ground at incredible speed when a light is shined on it. None of the propreitary treatments has any effect and the fallacy of beer ends up with you being further inundated. The beer simply attracts them. Yes a fair number drown drunk... but there are thousands to make up for the few that do. Salt kills them but it is impractical for the variety that spring back into their holes. The light you need to see them makes them disappear.

Perhaps the answer is for everyone in Sydenham to keep bright lights shining on their gardens for a complete year. However surely it is time for the local authority to be dealing with this. Pest control is one of their statutory responsibilities.
Small comfort here, but having heard someone tell me about his research using some cool technology to track the foraging behaviour or wildebeeste, or something like it, I wondered whether anyone had done the same for slugs and snails, so we'd know how to catch them. Much more useful, I would have thought, and something evidence based, rather than all those folk remedies. But it seems not, I think for two reasons. First, it's much easier to attach a tracking device to a wildebeeste, and they don't have that sneaky way of disappearing underground, but second because slug pellets are effective enough for farmers and growers that there's no commercial incentive to do the research
milton
Posts: 36
Joined: 27 Feb 2018 11:33
Location: newbury

Re: Disease carrying slugs hit Sydenham

Post by milton »

Sprinkle it with salt, or pour some down the hole. Dead in seconds.

That said I've never seen a slug come out of a hole.
Where I live I have some that look like pork sausages they are that big.
Also note that some slugs actually prey on other slugs.
alywin
Posts: 920
Joined: 27 Aug 2009 12:33
Location: No longer in Sydenham

Re: Disease carrying slugs hit Sydenham

Post by alywin »

That's cruel. I did it to a leech once, before I knew any better. Its death throes were excruciating.
milton
Posts: 36
Joined: 27 Feb 2018 11:33
Location: newbury

Re: Disease carrying slugs hit Sydenham

Post by milton »

I suppose it is cruel.
Better to poison them,stamp on them or cut in half with a spade.?
Tadpole
Posts: 111
Joined: 23 Apr 2010 22:44
Location: In a pond near you

Re: Disease carrying slugs hit Sydenham

Post by Tadpole »

It's not a recent thing.
Back in the 80's I lived in the Thorpes and my cat got lung worm. Treated by the vet (Paul someone, lovely guy committed suicide unfortunately a few days later) who opened the Vets on Mayow Road.
He thought it was cancer and advised me to have her put down. I asked for the expensive tests he'd mentioned to be done and sent away to the RVC. Results back with lungworm and cat fine after a week of treatment.
If there was a way to rid my garden totally of slugs and snails it would have been done long ago. The only thing pet owners can do is take their fur babies to the vets if something seems odd. Don't ponder on it for a few days, get them checked.
John H
Posts: 278
Joined: 17 Aug 2017 18:15
Location: Sydenham

Re: Disease carrying slugs hit Sydenham

Post by John H »

Seems to me vets should be routinely testing. The Advocat prevention does not work. However there has been a massive increase in the slug population. That was the thrust of my post.
KPR
Posts: 99
Joined: 4 Apr 2016 21:06
Location: Sydenham

Re: Disease carrying slugs hit Sydenham

Post by KPR »

I use nematode worms - safe for kids and pets and pretty cheap. Gets rid of the slugs pretty much completely and seems to reduce snail numbers too (though manufacturers don’t claim this). Widely used by commercial growers for slug prevention. Need to repeat every six weeks through spring, summer and autumn.
John H
Posts: 278
Joined: 17 Aug 2017 18:15
Location: Sydenham

Re: Disease carrying slugs hit Sydenham

Post by John H »

KPR wrote:I use nematode worms - safe for kids and pets and pretty cheap. Gets rid of the slugs pretty much completely and seems to reduce snail numbers too (though manufacturers don’t claim this). Widely used by commercial growers for slug prevention. Need to repeat every six weeks through spring, summer and autumn.
I used these too. First year they were moderately successful. Second year... no effect.
KPR
Posts: 99
Joined: 4 Apr 2016 21:06
Location: Sydenham

Re: Disease carrying slugs hit Sydenham

Post by KPR »

That’s odd - have been using them for years now and they always seem to work. I don’t think slugs can develop immunity to them - one tip I picked up is to make sure you do a dose late in the year (October, before first frost) as this knocks the slugs on the head before the winter and means there are far fewer of them to get going again in the spring.
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