It may be known as snail mail, but researchers are hoping the public will use the postal service to send them a different kind of mollusc: slugs.
A team of scientists and farmers carrying out research into slug-resistant wheat say they need about 1,000 of the creatures to explore how palatable slugs find various crops.
“The ones that we’re specifically looking for are grey field slugs: they’re the ones that are the agricultural pests,” said Tom Allen-Stevens, the founder of the British On-Farm Innovation Network (Bofin) that is leading the work.
The study is asking people to send in slugs by signing up for a “slug scout” pack, which includes containers and postage-paid envelopes. The pack also contains guides on how to create an attractive habitat to catch slugs and how to identify species.
The latter, it seems, is crucial. “There is a slug called the leopard slug,” Allen-Stevens said. “And if you come across that for heaven’s sake don’t send it in, because they eat other slugs.”
The researchers are looking for farmers to become “slug sleuths”, which involves hosting trials such as using traps to monitor slug activity. The research is part of a three-year £2.6m project called Strategies Leading to Improved Management and Enhanced Resilience against Slugs (Slimers) – that began in 2023 and is funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
It aims to find new ways to tackle what it calls “arable farming’s biggest pest issue”. Slimers says slugs are responsible for £43.5m worth of crop damage to wheat and oilseed rape every year in the UK.
The chemical metaldehyde, which was commonly used in slug control products in the UK, was banned in 2022, resulting in the increased use of ferric phosphate pellets. However, the industry is keen for alternatives.
“Where we can we want to apply pesticides more precisely and everyone in the industry recognises that’s the right direction to go in,” said Allen-Stevens. “And farmers don’t want to spread slug pellets where they’re not needed.”
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Slimers is looking at new ways to control the molluscs, including by identifying and predicting slug hotspots so that available treatments can be applied in a more focused way.
Bofin is also looking at the potential for slug-resistant crops. It is carrying out trials involving a landrace wheat known as Watkins 788 that slugs seem to spurn and 84 crosses of this crop with modern wheat.
While Allen-Stevens said the postal kits had been approved by Royal Mail, he cautioned against posting molluscs late in the week. “That’s just in case they sit in a post room over the weekend,” he said. “That’s the main thing … Don’t post them before a weekend or a bank holiday.”
