You’ve brought your seedlings all this way and it’s soul destroying when slugs level them in a single night - but what can we do?

1. There is plenty of controversy around slug pellets and it’s really down to how you feel about them as to whether you use them.

2. There are other ways to keep slugs at bay and introducing nematodes which will poison them is one. Nematodes can be bred by soaking a recipe of leaves and other matter in water but are more often bought.

3. It pays to make sure your soil is good by digging in plenty of compost and well-rotted manure, so that your seedlings can grow fast and well, thus becoming less appetizing to slugs.

4. Slug traps can be made using plastic bottles and beer or half grapefruit and orange skins. Copper rings around pots are effective and gel repellents are sold to lie around plants.

5. Old school as it may seem, going out after dark with a torch and picking slugs off by (gloved!) hand is effective and, if you’re harbouring bad feeling after a slug attack on a favourite plant, extremely satisfying.