Slugs and snails can be a gardener's worst nightmare as they feast on flowers and crops, destroying them overnight.
But as gardeners make every effort to evict these little critters, Michael Griffiths (@the_mediterranean_gardener) explains in a post on Instagram that one type of slug should be allowed to stay — the leopard slug.
The scoop
Leopard slugs aren't really interested in your living plants and instead choose to feed on fungi and dead and rotting vegetation. What's more, these slugs are omnivorous, meaning they eat both plants and animals and feed on other slugs, which makes them great at pest control.
In his reel, Griffiths explains that these slugs are the best to have in your garden and that they will hunt down other slugs at an impressive speed — for a slug — of 6 inches per minute.
How it's helping
Gardening is a great way to get outside and can improve physical and mental health. Tips like these can help keep your garden free from pests and ensure that any work you put into it does not go to waste. Using tips like these can also save you money on expensive pesticides, which can kill other insects and plants, even if you didn't intend to.
There are a lot of simple tricks and tips you can use to keep pests at bay without reaching for pesticides, including using trap crops and planting certain plants that repel insects such as basil. This ensures that any produce you do grow is free from pesticides, which is better for your health.
The Cool Down recently reported on research that shows that washing fruit and vegetables to remove pesticides may not be doing the trick, which could have various health implications. Pesticide exposure has been linked to a variety of health problems and diseases, including diabetes, cancer, and developmental issues.
Pesticides can also be washed away from our gardens and into waterways such as streams, rivers, and lakes when it rains, which can cause toxic buildup in these waterways that pollutes the water we drink and harms the wildlife that rely on these resources.
What people are saying
The video received over 14,000 likes, and the comments section was full of people exclaiming they didn't know this fact.
"You learn something new every day." one commenter wrote. While another told their fellow posters, "Don't fling these ones over the fence."
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