The Spanish slug is considered a pest by gardeners and farmers and can eat entire vegetable patches. It can already be found everywhere in Germany. According to an expert from Görlitz, the snail is increasingly heading for other areas.
Görlitz (dpa/sn) - According to a Görlitz biologist, the Spanish slug is spreading more and more in nature reserves in Germany and also in Saxony. "Even in small and medium-sized nature reserves, it is already there," said Heike Reise from the Senckenberg Museum for Natural History in Görlitz. The voracious slug species is considered a pest by gardeners and farmers. It causes considerable damage in beds and fields.
The brownish-red animals are already widespread in areas close to people such as gardens, towns or along roadsides. The curator in the mollusc research section explained that the spread into the forests could result in it occurring alongside related snail species and displacing them in the long term. "The effect on other species is poorly understood, with very few exceptions". A study in Sweden has shown, for example, that they could also change the forest floor flora.
The species has been established since 1969, initially in south-west Germany and then in the east of the country in the 1990s. "Within ten years, the species was widespread in East Saxony," explained the expert.
If you want to get rid of the snail species from your garden, you should therefore not carry them into the forest, where they could spread further. Lures such as a beer trap are also critical because they attract even more animals. It is more effective to collect the snails and boil them, for example.
