Slugs and snails are the closest relatives, only the former completely or, less often, partially, lack a shell. They move by contraction of the whole body, which acts as the sole and leg at the same time. Hence the scientific name - gastropods. They are ubiquitous, here are just a few types of slugs:


Sea slug is found in the water. Only here we are not talking about a relative of the snail, but about an unusual fish. She adapted to a deep-sea existence, which was previously considered impossible by scientists. In the photo, the sea slug looks more like an overgrown tadpole. This form is most suitable for living at an unthinkable depth (almost 8 thousand meters). Some sea slugs live close to the coast, not hiding under the huge water column. And this phrase is also popularly called nudibranch mollusks, the closest relatives of gastropods.

Animal colors vary. In addition to the usual gray or black ones, you can find purple slug, white, yellow, green slug, blue individuals and even red clams. It largely depends on the environment. Surprisingly, some species make interesting pets. They are kept in special terrariums, the litter at the bottom of which must be mulched so that pets can move freely without risking damage to the delicate body-sole. These include the Madagascar slug. It is flatter and smoother than the garden types we are used to, and outwardly resembles a fat, gluttonous worm covered with mucus.

What do slugs eat, and who eats them

In nature, slugs, most often, live in damp, sheltered from the sun, dark places. Their surface practically does not retain moisture, therefore, under direct rays, they dry out and die. This explains the fact that you will not find slugs in the desert, but in forests, gardens and orchards - in abundance. But even in the bath they will not take root either, despite the suitable conditions, since there is simply nothing for them to eat there.

Night creatures feed on the remains of organic food - humus, mulch, rot. But sometimes they are not averse to eating fresh plant leaves and berries, they are very fond of strawberries, for which they are quite dangerous garden pests. There are predatory species that attack worms, and especially large individuals can eat newborn mice or chicks.

Gardeners and gardeners invent many traps to scare or kill him. But! On the other hand, these creatures are actively involved in the formation of humus and process the topsoil, making it more fertile.

But how do they drink? Everything is simple here: the mollusk licks moisture from the surface of the leaves, thereby replenishing the supply of fluid, which is then processed into mucus, which is necessary for movement and maintaining normal body moisture.

Nature has taken care of the regulation of their numbers, creating a huge number of those who eat slugs, and moreover, considers them the best delicacy. One of the most terrible natural enemies is the ground beetle. This is a nocturnal predator, insatiable and incredibly voracious. Soft, defenseless gastropods are his favorite food. During the night, the ground beetle destroys up to several dozen small pests and several large ones.

Another lover to taste a big slug is a hedgehog. It also actively hunts at night, preferring the soft, nutrient-rich body of a shellless relative of the snail. Again, a dozen or two pests will die in one night under sharp hedgehog teeth. Toads, grasshoppers, frogs, salamanders and birds of prey also catch slugs.

Features of reproduction, or where the cubs come from

Of course, if there are adult slugs, then there must be “kids”. And this is so, and newborn individuals, or rather, eggs, become a delicacy for many birds, insects and mammals. But let's first understand how slugs reproduce.

There is no need to talk about males and males, because gastropods are hermaphrodites. In other words, they have both male and female genital organs, and during mating they can act in any role. Surprisingly, in the animal environment, it is these ordinary-looking creatures that are recognized as "sexual giants"! The fact is that the length of the male penis is several times the length of the entire body! For example, a banana slug, on average, grows up to 15 cm, but at the same time, its erect penis reaches 81 cm! This is a real record that no one else can boast of.

The reproduction of slugs is a mysterious and incomprehensible process. When mating, adults seem to envelop each other with their genitals. It is often almost impossible to unravel such a “tangle”, so the animals just have to bite off the partner’s organ or their own. However, it does not always grow back, and the victim in the future can only use the remaining female part of the reproductive system. It is in this context that one can speak of a slug-girl.

After the described process, fertilized eggs mature in the body of the participants. Then the adult lays them in moist soil. On average, there are about 50 eggs in one clutch, they mature for about a month, and cubs are born. A newborn slug is no different from an adult, except perhaps only in size. This is a tiny copy of the gastropod mollusk familiar to all of us. After 2 months, the babies fully grow and become sexually mature, starting to actively multiply.

Pests or useful helpers

The answer to the question is ambiguous, because animals can cause significant harm and at the same time improve soil structure. But most often slugs in the garden are a real disaster, because:

  1. They develop rapidly and become ready for the reproduction of offspring.
  2. One individual lays several dozen fertilized eggs at once
  3. Structural features make them hermaphrodites, so there is simply no shortage of females or males.

Important! If you don't want to let slugs thrive in your garden or garden, keep the situation under control and, if necessary, take action to scare off pests or reduce their population.

Now you know what slugs look like, how they differ from snails, how they feed and reproduce. These are, indeed, unique creations of nature, whose life is unusual and interesting.

Slugs - what is it? This land gastropods. shellless. Their closest relatives are shelled gastropods, we call snails.

Snails can also live on land, but most of them still live in the water. Despite the lack of a protective shell, naked slugs often become a real disaster for the garden.

This article will help you get acquainted with their biology, and how a snail differs from a slug, as well as why they appear and what they eat.

What do they look like?

The structure of a naked slug(slug) looks like this. The body of a slug consists of three parts - a head, a body with a mantle and a leg, see the photo on the right.

The body is elongated, slightly flattened from top to bottom. The head is raised and clearly visible, she bears two pairs of tentacles - long, eyes and olfactory receptors sit on them, and short labials, which serve for touch and taste. Mouth in front of head.

Behind the head on the back is a convex "collar" - this is the mantle, inside which is the lung, and on the right side is a breathing hole. The anal opening is located nearby. The leg is the lower surface of the body on which the mollusk crawls.

The skin of the slug is thin, naked and always covered with mucus. The integument usually has a protective coloration- sandy, brown, gray, brown, and sometimes small white and black spots are distributed over a brown background.

The mucus helps the clams glide, cools them down, and protects them from enemies.

Sizes vary from 20 cm to 2 mm depending on the type of slug.

How do they reproduce?

Let's talk about how slugs breed. They are hermaphrodites by nature. each individual bears both the male and female reproductive system.

But for laying eggs cross fertilization is necessary, so that the slugs find each other by scent, and after a short mating dance, which can be an interesting sight, they exchange sperm.

After that, each lays 20-30 eggs in moist soil. After 2-3 weeks, small slugs come out, which feed first on soil organic residues, and after 1.5 months they grow and begin to reproduce.

After a single mating, egg laying continues for a month or longer. During the summer, each slug can lay up to 500 eggs.

In the middle lane, adult slugs, having laid their eggs for the last time, die in the fall. Eggs hibernate; in early June, juveniles appear and after a month of active feeding, they start breeding.

The life cycle, like the development cycle, can speed up or slow down depending on the weather. Sometimes slugs that have not had time to lay their eggs in the fall overwinter in the soil, and start laying in the spring.

09/30/2016 at 15:27

And I breed snails, though African ones. Now the slug lives at home. Normal. Huge. brought from the garden. Experimented this year. I collected a bucket of snails and slugs, took it to the corner of the site. Released next to the fence. Before that, I put two wooden sticks, 25 cm wide. About a meter long. I put a small piece of slate to the fence, not very tight. Any cover is possible. And she threw pieces of kiraich, stones, old pieces of concrete. They are loose. I put three plastic plates. She loosened up a tiny piece of earth. And in the plates I put vegetable peelings, carrots, pumpkin, zucchini, the first leaves of cabbage, lettuce, tops. Tomatoes, buttocks of cucumbers. Grass tore, mowed grass put them slides. A handful of dog food sometimes. Usually three times a
month. All! Friends, experience has shown that snails and. slugs did not crawl further than half a meter! Half a meter from their corner of paradise, I have a garden bed with cucumbers, pumpkins, sunflowers grow, and they all adore sunflower leaves))) periodically laid a leaf for them, quickly ate them) snail eggs (ariantha arbustorum) and slugs are very similar, you can find them in loose earth. Put in a bag and freeze, a week in the freezer, then you can throw it away or it
pure calcium for pets, as well as the number of the clan will noticeably decrease and the crop is intact and there is no need to poison anyone. After all, if you look closely, this is a miracle of nature, a fantasy ..

29.11.2015 at 10:31

We try not to bring the backyard to a state where countering slugs will become an ordeal. I cultivate the land with a cultivator, which loosens it very efficiently. The same, in the sense of loosening, is done by the spouse at the stages of planting care. The result is that there are no large clods of earth where moisture could accumulate, which reduces the number of slugs.

11/10/2015 at 13:19

Slugs on cabbage are very tormenting. If the leaves lie low to the ground, and the summer is rainy, then you can fight them only by cutting off the lower leaves. I was surprised to read the previous post that slugs live in the cellar. This means that the cellar is also damp, it must be dried.

A slug (slug) is a terrestrial gastropod mollusk that lacks a shell, or it is reduced. There are several hundred species of these mollusks in the world. All representatives of the families Onchidiacea and Soleolifera and a number of species from the family Sigmurethra belong to them. Slugs are relatives of snails, as well as nudibranch mollusks (so-called "sea slugs").

Structure

These mollusks lack a shell and have a naked body. In front of the body they have a head, which is connected to the back with a short neck. On the back there is an oval thickening, this is a mantle that covers the respiratory organ - the lung, the anus and the genitals. Slugs are characterized by bilateral symmetry, broken by an unpaired pulmonary opening, always located on the right. Two pairs of tentacles stand out on the head, directed forward, where the sense organs are located. A pair of longer tentacles at the ends have well-developed eyes. In the oral cavity there is a radula - a disc-shaped tongue equipped with many small teeth, with the help of which they absorb food, peeling off soft particles layer by layer with a grater, and are saturated. In a calm state, the individual is a small elongated lump, which, when moving, is greatly stretched. The mollusk secretes a lot of mucus (hence the name), which primarily serves as a protection against drying out, and also helps with sliding, reducing friction when moving. These mollusks move due to the wave-like contractile movements of the sole. After the animal, there is always a silvery trace of mucus. Most slugs have a body length of several centimeters, but large species of these mollusks (big roadside, banana, blue-black) can measure 15-30 cm. Basically, slugs have a nondescript brown color . But there are animals that have a bright color, for example, the forest slug has an anthracite-black color, the long banana slug is rich yellow, the red roadside slug is brown or orange-red. These mollusks have a very slow movement speed, but they can make relatively long migrations, mainly in search of food.

Slugs can be found everywhere, but they reach their greatest distribution in areas with a temperate climate with high humidity - the forests of North America, Western and Central Europe, wet thickets of trees and shrubs in Australia and New Zealand. They live in forests, fields, gardens, meadows. The pattern of settlement in warm and humid areas is due to the lack of a shell, which should have sheltered animals from heat, cold and drought. During the day, slugs hide from direct sunlight in leaves and grass, and are activated at night, in the early morning. They overwinter by burrowing deep into the ground. They also lay eggs in the soil.

Among slugs there are individuals with all types of food. The main part of these mollusks are herbivorous, they feed on leaves, flowers, fruits and above-ground parts of root crops. Some species eat mushrooms, the remains of dead living organisms (fallen leaves, carrion), as well as moss, lichens, and feces. There are also omnivorous and predatory species of slugs that prey on earthworms, their smaller "brothers".

reproduction

Like all mollusks, slugs are hermaphrodites and breed once a year. After mating and fertilization, 30-70 eggs are laid in the ground. After 3-5 weeks, fully formed tiny slugs emerge from the eggs, which grow rapidly and reach sexual maturity in 55-60 days. Their life expectancy is 1-2 years.

Due to the lack of a shell, these mollusks are quick and desirable prey for many predatory animals. They feed on raccoons, ducks, noses, wild boars, chickens, storks, hedgehogs, waders, pheasants, pigeons, starlings, jackdaws, magpies, frogs, toads, salamanders. Slugs are protected from attack by their low mobility and inconspicuous coloration. Mollusks easily repair minor damage and bitten horns. In some regions, people eat them raw or boiled. Raw slugs can be contagious, as they carry helminths and meningitis pathogens, infecting goats, sheep, and chickens. In nature, they can bring both benefit and harm. Some species, digesting fallen leaves and turning them into humus, are of great benefit. Species such as field and net slugs cause damage to crops, damaging strawberries, beets, cucumbers, turnips, dill, lettuce, zucchini, watermelons, pumpkins, wheat, melons. Also, many representatives of the group are carriers of dangerous viral, bacterial, fungal diseases of these plants.

Just the word "slug" disgusts people. A nasty, rather vile, shapeless, slippery creature immediately appears before your eyes, which is always crawling somewhere.

Does nature really not have a mind that could produce such an animal that no one needs, useless for anything? To find the answer, you should study in more detail what characterizes the large roadside slug, the photo of which is now in front of your eyes. After reviewing the description of the slug, a person will have an idea of ​​​​what the appearance of this creature is, what lifestyle it leads, where its habitats are.

Large roadside (or leopard) slug: appearance

Representatives of this species are the largest of all types of large slugs. In different parts of the world, these mollusks were brought from Europe, which is their homeland. The large roadside slug is a mollusc of the order Lung snails. Its body consists of one leg, which merges with the head of the slug and is called the sole. The body length of the mollusk reaches from 10 to 20 cm. Sometimes the body of the animal grows up to 30 cm. It is wrinkled, somewhat rounded, pointed at the end of the back.

The body of slugs is symmetrical on both sides. From above it is covered with the so-called mantle in the form of a plate. Under it are the reproductive organs and the anus. There is a keel on the tail.

The color of the slug is found from light gray to chestnut, sometimes it is yellowish-white or ashy. The entire body of a large roadside slug is covered with black spots and stripes. This "cute" creature has very long tentacles. Their mucus is colorless.

Internal structure

On the back, under the skin of the mollusk, a shell is visible, which, like all other slugs, is greatly reduced. The shell is white in color, resembling an oblong oval in shape, its length is 13 mm, and its width is 7 mm. It is assumed that healing substances are stored there. This shell has been known since ancient times and used for medicinal purposes.

The digestive system of the leopard slug consists of the radula, pharynx, esophagus, and intestines. In the intestines, four sections have a connection with the liver, while the other two simply hang freely inside the body.

At first glance, this slug looks like a very simple creature, but it has a nervous system that consists of ganglia. Each ganglion has its place: the pedal ganglion lies under the radula, the abdominal ganglion is slightly to the right of the midline, and the visceral ganglia are located in the middle between the esophagus and the lingual membrane.

habitats

The habitats of the large roadside slug cover large areas. The habitat is located in the humid and temperate climate zones. Slugs live only in biotopes with sufficient moisture. For them, a very comfortable habitat is the litter of a deciduous forest.

Slugs are native to Australia, New Zealand and North America. They are also found in Western and Central Europe, in the Caucasus, where their favorite places are fields, meadows, forests, gardens and caves.

Large roadside slug: what to feed

These mollusks are herbivorous, when choosing food they are not too whimsical. While keeping in the terrarium, they should be provided with vegetables, fruits and mushrooms. Separately, you need to dwell on what the big roadside slug eats in places of natural residence.

Vegetation is considered the main food for mollusks. The leopard slug feeds on fallen leaves, flowers, fruits, and soft stems of living plants. Mushrooms are sometimes present in his diet. Although these slugs eat a lot, showing gluttony, if necessary, they can live without food for about 60 days, while being in a humid place.

Large roadside slug: breeding

This species, like all slugs, has a hermaphroditic reproductive system. Each individual has genital organs that correspond to the sex. Sexual products become mature with a time difference. First, the maturation of the sperm occurs. She represents packaged sachets - spermatophores. Then it starts in males. This substance is endowed with a smell by which the slug is found by its relative.

The mating ceremony of large roadside slugs takes place in a very unusual way. Mollusks hang on mucous threads head down, their bodies are woven into a single ball by their genitals. Since the blue penises of slugs reach a great length, it is not always possible for mating couples to unravel. In this case, some individuals resort to the least and bite off the genital organ, which grows back after a while.

After fertilization, the mollusk lays eggs in the ground; on average, one adult can lay from 30 to 70 large eggs. Their development occurs within 21-35 days, after which small slugs are born. They reach sexual maturity in 60 days. These animals live no longer than two years.

Economic value. Damage inflicted

For nature, slugs bring some benefit, being orderlies. They are able to process leaves that have fallen from trees, making humus out of them. But most of all, these mollusks, including the large roadside slug, cause quite significant damage to agriculture.

These voracious creatures cause especially great harm to potatoes by eating the tubers and foliage of the plant. Cauliflower and white cabbage, various varieties of lettuce, root crops, young vegetable plants, as well as fruits of strawberries, tomatoes and cucumbers suffer from the invasion of slugs. Vineyards and entire citrus plantations are affected by this pest.

The large roadside slug causes much less damage to the following crops:

  • Red cabbage.
  • Roots and leaves of parsley.
  • Onion and garlic.
  • Crops of barley and oats.

Spring wheat, flax and buckwheat almost do not feel the invasion of slugs. In addition to the fact that mollusks voraciously destroy crops, they are also carriers of fungal and viral diseases. Among these pests is a large roadside slug. The description of these diseases, which include spotting of cabbage, late blight of potatoes and downy mildew, makes it possible once again to ascertain the harmfulness of the slug. In this regard, the question arises, how can you get rid of such a nasty enemy?

Methods and ways to deal with slugs

Before you know what effective methods of dealing with slugs exist, you need to study and use all available preventive measures in time. First of all, you need to ensure that the sites have a large number of natural enemies of slugs. These include hedgehogs, frogs and toads.

In addition, a trench must be made around the site, as well as sprinkled with sand, needles, lime and crushed egg shells. Slugs will have to bypass such an obstacle. Plants in the beds should be kept in a weed-free state, thinned out in time.

You can fight slugs by picking them up with your hands. To do this, at night, pieces of wet bark or heaps of mowed grass are laid out between the plants, under which the pest will hide. In the morning, the collection of a pest called "big roadside pest" calmly begins by hand, people know many ways, one of them is catching clams with a can of beer, which in this case serves as bait for slippery uninvited guests.

If the above methods did not manage to get rid of slugs and the mass reproduction of pests has already begun, you will have to use chemicals. Currently, new generation products have appeared that do not pose any danger to the environment.

Do you know which animal on the planet ranks first among the toothy ones themselves? Probably, it is very interesting for everyone. Although surprising, the most toothy creature that is not a predator is a large roadside slug. There are approximately 30,000 teeth on his tongue! This grater tongue helps the slug grind all the foods it eats and make

It can be concluded that among the toothy individuals there are not only large predators, but also mollusks, which are among the smallest representatives of the animal world.

Let's first look at the portrait of a slug, which is familiar to all gardeners. Here he is, a naked freak, wet, nasty .... If chickens could speak, then their words would sound like this: “Here he is, handsome, naked, tasty.” Mother Nature would have tenderly uttered these words: “How beautiful you are, little cub. How I need you."

Number 1 - brown arion, number 2 - striped arion. Striped is a pest.

Arion brown. While "sleeping" - a lump, and crawled - 80 millimeters of growth appeared from somewhere. The main place for a comfortable life is coniferous, deciduous or mixed forests. Sometimes they are seen in old parks or cemeteries. He does not like sunlight, therefore he crawls out to feed in the twilight-dark hours of the day. Mushroom pickers see only traces of feasts - the cavities on the hats are oiled and mushrooms. And how the slug feasts on dead roots, leaves or dead small animals, only zoologists have observed. In our Altai Territory, it is found in Eastern Siberia, in the Amur River basin and Primorsky Territory, only the color instead of brown is more of a single-color black.

Woe to those gardeners and gardeners who wanted to have not just a plot for growing vegetables and apple trees, but a beautiful place on the edge of the forest under the shade of lonely pines for a beautiful cottage with a production bias in the form of growing garden products - the slug harms the gardens and fields located in the neighborhood with the forest. Yes, and how not to harm, because everything is laid out in the beds, here are the most delicate lettuce leaves, and here is the most delicious cabbage.

Arion striped. A close relative of brown, it is lighter in color, it is rather ashy with a slight admixture of yellowness or or creme brulee. This pest prefers to live in cultivated biotopes - in gardens, fields, parks and, of course, in vegetable gardens. It is good that he does not live in all regions, but in the north-west of our country and in its central regions.

Slug black. A very long slug, even a chicken will be afraid to peck, up to 20 centimeters in length its body can stretch when moving. It is good that he feeds on lichens and mushrooms. Range: Karelia, Baltic States, Belarus, west and center of Russia, and areas located east of Novgorod.

Number 1 - large slug, number 2 - field slug, number 3 - black slug, number 4 - smooth slug.

The slug is big. Less black, and that's a joy, because the length of the body can be 130 millimeters, and this is 13 centimeters. But it’s still unpleasant when such living creatures settle in a greenhouse, garden or vegetable garden. He also loves vegetable stores, of course, because the entire range of delicious food is collected in one place, there is no need to spend energy looking for it. Range: northwestern and central regions of Russia.

Malacolimax gentle. Gentle for the gardener, because it eats mushrooms and lichens.

Malacolimax gentle.

Field slug. Not big, only 40 millimeters when stretched. This forest and darkness are not needed, he loves ditches, swamps, meadows, does not shy away from forest edges. The main, most important thing is that he does not like cultivated land. You can save yourself from it by constant digging of the soil in the beds. The soil will lose fertility. What's better? To know...

Slug is smooth. Less field slug. He loves swamps, damp meadows, the banks of overgrown reservoirs. He is not afraid of water, it does not cost him anything to feed on a leaf under water. He is not afraid of the cold.

Slug mesh.

Do not believe everything that is written. For example, that slugs love beer. Maybe they love, but who tested them for the ability to die from alcohol intoxication? Or ashes… What kind of ash, cigarette or wood ash? The first is too little, and the second will need no less. After all, you will have to process the entire area, every square centimeter.

Pine needles will not help, as well as spruce needles. Look above, it says that some slugs love coniferous forests, and there are so many of these needles that you won’t find a haystack among them.

Chemical methods of protection against slugs are ineffective. When a poisonous substance gets on the mucus, the animal simply shakes off the sticky clothes and immediately puts on a new, no less sticky one.

Gardeners believe that ground red hot pepper is dangerous. But this is a very costly method.

Can be chemically destroyed. Metaldehyde will help, it is recommended to scatter 40 grams per square meter. This is also expensive, given that the treatment, that is, the sprinkling of the earth, is not a one-time procedure, but multiple, because every rain washes away all traces. At the same time, it is necessary to pollute the soil with poison, how will the soil inhabitants, who create fertility, react to this?

You can sprinkle with dolomite flour or slaked lime, also not God knows how good, but this is the most economically viable method, although treatments should be carried out after each rain.

There is a generally accepted opinion that you need to sprinkle the paths and around the beds. Don't believe! What, harmful Velcro only live under the tracks? And crawl out to the surface only above the tracks? Therefore, it is recommended to sprinkle around the beds with a path around the perimeter. These animals can hide from the sun and wind in the place where they are impatient!

The beds should be well ventilated, they should not have grass or other shelters during the dangerous period for plants. The lower leaves should be removed so that they do not touch the ground and do not serve as bridges. There should not be many plants in the garden; it is much more difficult to find a pest in the jungle thickets, and it is more comfortable for him.

It is proposed to pollinate the soil with superphosphate. For me, this is not an acceptable method, I have already switched to natural farming, I do not need chemical fertilizers.

Another funny recommendation is to collect slugs in a jar after rain during the day. This can be recommended by someone who has not collected slugs himself. If there can be a million individuals per hectare of cultivated area, as in Great Britain, what percentage of this number will be three dozen specimens that accidentally caught your eye. The search for slugs for subsequent destruction is meaningless.

If you are to pour poison, then you need to do it in such a way as to protect the plant, and not the planting or sowing area - each plant. These scoundrels like to be found in the soil layer near the stems of plants. So it is necessary to loosen the bed, especially deeply with the soil tilted away from the stem. So all the slugs will be on the surface, they are clearly visible. Take a pruner and cut each one, believe me, slugs do not have the ability to regenerate tissues. Then spud the stalk with the same soil with the remains of the pest and sprinkle lime on top. This is the most effective way to fight, caution does not hurt - lime should not get on the plant itself, otherwise burns and ...

Reproduction of slugs or why there are no slugs in spring.

They are gentle, soft-bodied creatures, they cannot get deep into the soil, like earthworms or Colorado beetles. Although eggs are laid far enough from the soil surface, they are hidden from drying out at a depth of 8 centimeters.

Although they hide under the remnants of grass, heaps of garbage, they all die in frosts. The eggs remain to winter. If mom-dad-slug found a suitable place for masonry, then little babies will hatch from eggs, something like caviar, in spring on warm days. They will appear to us as adults in mid-July. Such reproduction of slugs was invented by nature.

Why wait for the slugs to attack? It can be prevented by destroying baby slugs or teenagers in time.

Who eats slugs or nature to help us.

Moreover, laying hens should not be allowed to peck at them, because hens will drastically reduce the supply of eggs for dinner.

Hedgehogs, moles, starlings, jackdaws and rooks eat slugs, frogs do not refuse them. Here there is material for thought, who is better for the garden, the mole, which will devour the slug and destroy all the plants, or the hedgehog, who himself is not averse to feasting on our green vegetables?

Lizards, salamanders and snakes fall away immediately. There were ground beetles, toads and frogs - they must be taken as assistants and companions, conditions for reproduction and life must be created.

Tell your friends gardeners and gardeners about ways to protect vegetable crops from a pest that eats everything in summer cottages.