You're right about slug pellets not working daisydaisy, I think they are a complete con, as they not only attract slugs and snails, they take a while to kill them.

This means that while the poisoned slugs are limping off to die, they get eaten by all the natural predators like birds, hedgehogs and beetles. A hedgehog can eat its own bodyweight in slugs in one night.

If you kill a hedgehog you are left with hundreds, if not thousands more slugs - and the slug pellet manufacturers are laughing.

They also make their claims about the pellets being 'pet friendly' on the back of starvation testing different animals.

The best thing you can do to reduce the numbers of these pests is dig a wildlife pond and build a log pile somewhere to attract more natural predators. Slugs only become a big problem when the natural balance is upset (such as where people have used pellets in the past).