It must be my early methodist upbringing, but they should have a purpose and it should involve some notion of do no harm!

Have been pondering this slug Q for hours (thank you Mosie!).
They do play an important part in the ecological cycle - by eating and excreting decomposing matter, thereby enriching the soil upom which we grow our plants. They are a food source for some birds,,foxes and frogs.

They do have an unfortunate habit of munching upon our flowers for which we grow to have the pleasure of looking at, and the lettuce which we should like to munch upon.

I wonder just who has the right to determine what the purpose of another species might be.

Perhaps Mosie the solution to your slug problem would be to have a pond in your garden with plenty of frogs?

The only time I have had anything to do with maintaining a pond it was an awful faff with things constantly going wrong-- ie leaks and mass deaths, I don't think I can face it, besides next door have a pond. Surely their frogs can hop over and be neighbourly? This may be the source of my slug problem, I have got all of theirs because they are avoiding the froggies!Now that I realise they are refugees.................

I used to throw them over the garden fence until a friend told me that they have a homing instinct. Could this be true? So I just leave them to the birds and my one frog from a neighbours pond and try to plant flowers they don't like which seems to work. It's only when I go out in the garden at night and hear a crunch do I feel guilty:)

Mosie - an immigration centre on the boundary between you and your neighbours gardens? Any slugs wishing to migrate are obliged to swear allegiance to the Mosie policy of not munching on the plants , the penalty for for default being to be thrown back to the froggies.

My neighbour has been very kind since I moved in, welcoming and friendly, not sure that I can lob slugs over and survive in the area.

They've already lost most of their fish to a heron which I said looked magnificent standing on the shed roof.

O.K Mosie, I admit defeat. I should much rather look a heron than a slug, irrespective of what they are feasting upon

Mozart on the CD player, fan on because I feel a trifle hot, but it can always be turned off if any chily badgers would care to come and share my cucumber sandwiches and lemonade and pass the time of day?

Puddley - I hope you are OK. I will not intrude upon your diffuclt time (or upon any of your time for that matter), but Julia has my e-mail address should you ever feel the need of a(nother) listening ear

talkin of cds ive been givern a cd by me ocupational health ,its an axerity cd,i can play it on me laptop,or on a cd player,it has 7 tracks of a man talkin,and it is brilliant,it really makes you concentrate on wot he sayin,and you do wot he says,like breathing in differet ways etc.everything around you seems to drift very quite.has anyone esle used a anxerity cd before,and if so did it help you calm?