The daffodil and slug

Spring is early this year. It is only early April and most late daffodils are already over, tulips are in full swing and magnolias are dropping its petals. It has been a better spring than other years, a little cold weather in winter helped the spring bulbs along and killed some of the insects and slugs that otherwise would devour the fresh green leaves and opening flowers of daffodils. It always puzzles me how slugs and snails manage to find the daffodil flowers. The leaves of daffodils are poisonous, so slugs are not interested in it, but the flowers, towering (to a slug) over the leaves, some 40 cm above, are often devoured while they are emerging from their protective bract. The result is unsightly, half-eaten coronas, broken petals and a sad botanist. Waiting all winter for these gems to emerge and then finding that a slug ate them over night is sad, particularly because somehow slugs seem to have a particular preference for the rare and unusual kinds of daffodils. The ones you paid a lot for in the autumn and were looking forward to show off to your botanist friends.

Slugs and snails must smell when the flowers emerge and really the climb up the daffodil stem is only a short one during a humid spring night.

Copper rings seem to be the best way to protect them, and I think it actually looks rather attractive as well, especially around pots. The copper conducts electricity and this gives the snails and slugs a small electric shock scaring them off. It does not always work, some daffodils, particularly the cultivar Ice Folly, flop over under the weight of the flower, allowing the slugs to get to them anyway. The gardener’s fight against slugs is neverending.