If the hedgehog has come in with a wound or injury I may need to unroll the hedgehog to check it. Then we can effectively monitor each hedgehog’s progress. Also daily, the students on cleaning the cages will note how much each hedgehog has eaten and how much water it has drunk. I will then weigh the Hedgehog and check this against its card, to see if it is putting on or losing weight. I look at each Hedgehog’s admittance card, which has all the information on the patient since its admittance telling me what is wrong with it and what medication has been prescribed by the vet. When I enter the Hedgehog Room, I start first at the heated bank, as the most poorly animals are here. Put a log pile in a corner of your garden to encourage beetles and they’ll keep the slug population down. Other animals that find slugs tasty are ducks, hedgehogs, birds, slow worms and even beetles. A wildlife pond doesn’t have to be huge either. If you build a wildlife pond, you’ll encourage frogs (and loads of other wildlife and insects) into your garden and let nature do its thing. Encouraging Predators Slugs are food to many other animals, so in some ways it’s best to encourage their predators into your garden so they can eat the offenders. Put a piece of damp cardboard in the garden, held down with a rock and you can then venture out and check it regularly and collect and remove any of the slugs that have congregated there. It’s best to take them a bit further than your neighbour’s garden! Damp Cardboard Slugs and snails like to hide in dark, damp places.
Some wildlife friendly alternatives to slug pellets include: Hand Removal Go out at night with a torch and collect all the snails and slugs you can find in a bucket. So, if possible, we urge you to get rid of slugs without killing them. We know slugs munching on your prize-winning lettuces can be irritating but slugs and snails play a hugely important role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem! In March 2022 the RHS announces that they will no longer be classing slugs and snails as pests saying “The RHS is all too aware of the role that gardens have in supporting biodiversity and as such will no longer label any garden wildlife as pests”. Good News! Metaldehyde Slug pellets can no longer be sold or used in the UK, as of Friday 1st April, because they mainly contain a pesticide called Metaldehyde which poses an unacceptable risk to birds, dogs, and wildlife such as hedgehogs.