Feldspar
Member
- Location
- Essex, Cambs and Suffolk
One thing that made my ears pr*ck up at the Kinsey seminar was his claim that slugs and snails were more of a problem in soils with high levels of available phosphates. He didn't seem able to provide an explanation as to why and I wondered if anyone had any bright ideas? Has anyone noticed any such link?
In conversation with one of the soil specialists here in the UK they mentioned that they thought there might be a link between the iron content in soils and the slug numbers. Where there was ferric phosphate naturally occuring in the soils there was fewer slugs. They weren't super sure but they did suggest a correlation.
Another thing that might tie into this is bits of anecdotal evidence between reduced slug numbers and applications of sewage sludge. Obviously this is high in phosphates but then if Kinsey is right one might expect it to encourage rather than discourage slugs.
All a bit confusing.
In conversation with one of the soil specialists here in the UK they mentioned that they thought there might be a link between the iron content in soils and the slug numbers. Where there was ferric phosphate naturally occuring in the soils there was fewer slugs. They weren't super sure but they did suggest a correlation.
Another thing that might tie into this is bits of anecdotal evidence between reduced slug numbers and applications of sewage sludge. Obviously this is high in phosphates but then if Kinsey is right one might expect it to encourage rather than discourage slugs.
All a bit confusing.