It hasn’t escaped the notice of any garden owner: 2024 was a banner year for slugs. Wester-Amstel also faced a real infestation. “The first time we all went on a slug hunt as a gardening group, we caught nearly a thousand. And it stayed that way, all summer long.”
The cause? The cool, wet spring weather, in which slugs thrive. Garden group coordinator Clasien: “We noticed it right away when we planted the lettuce seedlings in the open ground. The next day, there was nothing left. At first, we tried to get rid of the slugs with beer traps and the like. But there were just too many of them. The most effective method turned out to be picking them off the ground and leaves. We did this every Tuesday and Thursday, early in the morning.’
What to do with all those buckets of slugs? “If you put them in the organic waste bin, they lay their eggs there, and eventually, those eggs end up back in the soil. And each slug can lay up to three hundred eggs. You don’t want that.”
Throwing them over the hedge to the neighbors? “Not such a good idea either…”
So, the catch ended up in the Amstel River. “I don’t know if the fish liked them, but at one point, we did see a whole colony of ducks by the pier where we emptied the buckets.”
The next generation
Natural predators of slugs are increasingly scarce, both above and below ground. ‘We only had one hedgehog at Wester-Amstel, and even that disappeared after a while.’
So, it wouldn’t be surprising if next spring, a new generation of slugs will eagerly dive into the vegetable garden. What then? “As far as I’m concerned, we start catching them earlier, so they don’t multiply so quickly. And fortunately, there are plenty of flowers and plants they turn up their noses at: for example, nasturtiums. These vibrant flowers are also a great addition to any summer salad.”
By: Chris Bos