Monty Don reveals exact reason why some gardens are inundated with slugs

It can be highly unpleasant when you discover your garden is overrun by mucus-slathered slugs – luckily, there is one common thing that gardeners can stop doing to discourage them

Slugs are pretty hard to avoid – but if you find yourself inundated with the mucous-coated pests, gardening expert Monty Don warns there’s probably a reason.

One of the biggest problems that slugs pose is that they eat almost everything. They’re omnivorous and will munch away at a spectrum of unpleasant things, from dead animals to human waste. Unfortunately for your garden, they also enjoy chowing down on a variety of fruits, veg and flowers.

In particular, they love the taste of seedlings. This is because these young plants tend to have tender, digestible leaves and are nutrient dense.

READ MORE: Gardeners urged to sow one fruit now or miss crucial date

While it is normal for slugs to be present outdoors, too many can be a worrying sign. More than just ruining your foliage, slugs can also bring with them a range of diseases – including rat wingworm.

Rat lungworm is a type of parasite that can be harboured by slugs. If accidentally ingested, it can cause serious health issues for humans, including brain inflammation.

It can be tempting to run to pesticides when faced with an onslaught of slugs. However, these often contain harsh chemicals which pose a threat to animals and other wildlife.

Instead, it can be a better idea to determine the root cause of your slug invasion. That way, you can more effectively prevent them.

So, why might slugs be crawling all over your garden? Monty warns that it could be a sign that you’re overwatering your plants.

He writes in his blog: “Do not feed plants any more than is absolutely necessary and always feed the soil not the plant. This will avoid a spurt of soft, sappy growth that slugs love.”

Any excess food or nutrients not absorbed by the plant will draw slugs in. Equally, new shoots and other fresh growth will set their taste buds watering.

If you’re still dealing with a high volume of slugs even after cutting down on watering, there are other helpful tips to manage their numbers. One involves using copper bands to ward them off.

This works because slugs hate any material made with copper. This is because the element causes a reaction with their mucus, creating a feeling similar to an electric shock.

A more extreme method involves creating a beer trap. This is when you fill a small container, like a jam jar, with beer and place it near your plants. Slugs will be attracted to the yeast and once they fall into the container they will drown.