The ducks don’t seem to be making a difference to the slug population. What’s wrong?

In short: nothing. Give it time.

We got our ducks at the beginning of June that year. The slugs were mostly adult size, but our ducks were not quite there yet. The slugs had the highest population we’d ever seen, but our new ducks were only just finding their feet in our garden.

We were faced with a situation where not quite fully grown ducks were trying to swallow huge slugs. Not only that, there were more slugs than even growing ducks could possibly eat. For a couple of months it seemed like the ducks were making no difference at all to the slug population. It got to the stage where the ducks simply could not stomach eating any more slugs, even if we collected them for them. Even if we rolled the slugs in their favourite food, the ducks would simply eat around the slug!

After a while, though, we did start to notice a decline in the slug population. The biggest change you will notice, however, will be in the spring. Most of the oversized adult slugs will die over the winter, leaving only the tiny slugs which hide under plant pots, and of course the slug eggs. Now the spring after you get your ducks, they will be fully grown. They will have had a winter with no slugs to eat, and will be delighted for every tiny slug they find. While last summer they could only manage a few large slugs per hour (and not even that hour after hour), now they can eat several tiny slugs per minute. It is at this point in the cycle that your ducks will make the most difference to your slug population.

It is now June again. We have had our ducks for one full year. Even though this summer has given us enough rain every single day to keep the garden soaked, and even though our garden looks like a jungle, we have hardly any slugs.