Your garden ally in the war against pests
Hedgehog - Pest Control
Slugs and snails are forever a nuisance in the flower garden or on the vegetable patch and the past two wet summers have made things a lot worst as populations of these gastropods have exploded. Many of us have given up on growing certain plants as they are reduced to nothing more than ‘slug food’.
Encouraging Hedgehogs
Hedgehogs on the other hand, are not at all damaging to the garden, in fact they are very beneficial and a welcome and lovely sight in any garden - a natural and totally green pest control.
They will happily munch there way through thousands of slugs, snails, grasshoppers, caterpillars and other garden pests, but you must firstly of all temp them into your garden. This can be done by putting food out for them. Hedgehogs like nuts, dried fruits such as sultanas, muesli with honey, chopped peanuts, dog and cat food and water. Feeding hedgehogs with bread and milk is no longer recommended. A mixed diet for Hedgehogs is very important. If they survived on nothing but slugs and snails, they may die as gastropods are carriers of lungworm which are the wild hedgehog’s biggest killer.
During the late Autumn and Winter, if you build a bonfire in your garden, ensure that there are no sleeping/hibernating hedgehogs hidden away in it before you start your fire.
Definetly welcoming hedghogs in my garden! Too many slugs and snails munching on the vegetables after all that rain we had in the last week.