During the short spell of dry weather today, my walk was interrupted with a crunch underfoot. Looking down the path ahead of me, I discovered a crowd of more than twenty Garden snails. Snails love dampness, so after all of this rain, they suddenly seem to be everywhere along with their slug cousins. Amongst our wildlife in Otley, they are hard to love, especially if you happen to be a gardener as well as a wildlife lover. They are an important part however of our natural ecosystem, they provide food for all sorts of other wildlife, Thrushes in particular love them! Another Garden snail muncher is the adorable Hedgehog, who don’t like eating the slime, so will use their paws to scrape off the slime before gobbling them up! Sadly British Gardeners use unto 650 billion slug pellets a year, this poison enters the food chain and is deadly to our Thrushes and Hedgehogs, so please find an alternative.
By River Six