When choosing a rewilding species of the month, many species will stand out as clear options: the trophic cascading of the majestic eagle, the engineering prowess of the brilliant beaver, the splendid carbon sequestering seagrass. Few would consider the much-maligned slug. Yet this is exactly why slugs need to be chosen. 

In rewilding the UK, the most essential element to rewild is our mindset. We need to break free of the notion that some species should be revered, and others reviled. All creatures great and small have a role to play in our ecosystems and, once we understand that, then we can begin to celebrate slugs, alongside the other awe-inspiring aspects of the natural world. Doing this can make our everyday encounters with nature that bit more beautiful.

Lettuce be grateful

The old nursery rhyme goes that little girls are made of sugar and spice and all things nice. If that’s true then these little girls, like the little boys of the version I know, must also be made of slugs because slugs are very nice things to have around. For a start, they provide a meal for so many other species that we love. This includes song thrushes, which have seen a steep decline in the UK population over the past 50 years, and the hugely popular hedgehog, now listed as ‘near threatened’ on the IUCN red list.

If the idea of a world without the snuffling hedgehog and tuneful song thrush isn’t enough to get you caring then imagine life without slugs playing their part as detritivores. Referred to by the RHS as ‘recycling machines’ and by the Wildlife Trusts as ‘natures clean-up crew’, slugs consume dead and rotting matter and transform it into nutrients to feed the next generation of plants and trees. 

The Gardener’s Friend

Given their composting credentials, and the fact that their activity aerates the soil, it could be argued that slugs act as an ally to gardeners. This is, admittedly, a controversial opinion, especially for those gardeners who have discovered a Netted Field Slug devouring their much-loved Hosta. In such a situation, it is a great pity to not have more Leopard Slugs patrolling the garden – a highly territorial species who will eat other slugs that have the audacity to enter onto their patch. Plus, leopard slugs prefer eating dead plants to living ones. In fact, according to the RHS, very few species of slugs feed on live plants. Nonetheless, if you do find yourself with a slug problem, the best idea is to encourage their predators onto your land. Making messy rewilded spaces within your garden for birds, amphibians, hedgehogs, and ground beetles can help to restore the balance. 

A Matter of Slime

One thing that won’t stop slugs, despite the advice given on some gardening sites, is using sharp materials like broken eggshells. The slime produced by slugs is an incredible thing and gives them impenetrable protection. This enables them to slither over just about anything. If they can make their way over a razor blade, as in this video, then eggshells are just not going to cut it.

Even if the slug were to be cut, their fantastic slime has antibacterial properties which might help their wounds to heal. Perhaps an inherent understanding of the medicinal properties of slugs is why they have been utilised throughout the ages for a range of ailments, from whooping cough to arthritis. The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford even has an exhibit of a slug impaled on a thorn evidencing the use of the gastropod as a charm to tackle warts. Caution should always be taken when using slugs for medical purposes: particularly large ones may present a choking hazard when swallowed live (see this report from the Wilderness Medical Society if you would like to know more).

How a Slug Could Save Your Life

Whilst a slug stuck in your throat would be a disaster, the sticky nature of slug slime may have an exciting role to play in helping humans. One of the problems faced in surgery is that many adhesives used for wound repair are simply not strong enough to hold in wet environments, such as inside the body. Medical science has therefore turned to slugs for inspiration. Dr Adam Celiz from the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London has been studying the chemical composition of the sticky stretchy mucus of the UK’s woodland dwelling Dusky Arion Slug. He has spoken of the potential of his findings for developing tough adhesive hydrogels which could even help in recovery from heart attacks.

Slugs and Ancient Woodland

So, if slugs could save our lives, perhaps it’s time that we returned the favour. Although we are blessed with many, many slugs in the damp beauty of the UK, different species of slug depend upon different conditions in which to thrive. Whilst some thrive in your gardens and would happily slither around your drainpipe, others need much rarer habitats. It was in working to protect our ancient woodlands as part of Wild Card’s Rewild the Ghost Woods campaign that I first fell in love with a slug. That slug was an 8 foot tall Lemon Slug named Mal, created by The Lost Giants and brought to life in Sean McGrath’s short film. 

Lemon slugs (malacolimax tenellus) are an ancient woodland indicator. Hiding within the leaf litter of deciduous woodland and feeding on fungus, they are a nationally rare and threatened species. The lemon slug’s survival is therefore intrinsically linked to our actions to protect and restore our irreplaceable ancient woodland. That’s why in May 2026, Wild Card staged a Slugrising in Parliament Square setting a world record for the largest number of people dressed as slugs in one place. Parading from Parliament to DEFRA headquarters, we delivered a 146,000+ signature petition, endorsed by Dame Judi Dench and aimed at addressing the government’s sluggish progress on Ancient Woodland restoration.

Salacious Slugs

When organising our Slugrising, we had several conversations about one stand out slug moment in the UK’s cultural history. It incorporated another ancient woodland slug species, and the largest land slug in the world, the Ash Black Slug. This slug rose to fame in David Attenborough’s BBC series Wild Isles and is immortalised on YouTube with the heading ‘SHOCKING slug mating 😳’ It is a beautiful account, with befitting music, of one slug’s irresistible invitation to another to head up to the tree tops where the two hermaphrodites dangle down and entwine their penises to fertilise one another. As one YouTube comment states, ‘Better love story than Twilight’

The European slug species’ story is arguably a far more romantic tale than that taking place in woodlands on the other side of the Atlantic.  The mating habits of the North American Banana Slug (ariolimax) begins in the same way but can end up in apophallation. If you haven’t come across this word before then you may want to look it up but be warned – it is far more shocking than anything you might encounter on the BBC. Anyone who thinks that slugs are boring needs to think again!

Homeless Snails

One thing that can certainly be said for slugs is that we have a lot of them. As a species that thrives in wet and damp conditions, the UK is a perfect place and they have been present here since the end of the last ice age. This makes slugs an easy starting point for introducing children to nature.

It is interesting that snails get recognition in children’s picture books whilst slugs rarely get a look in.  They are not so different after all. Both are gastropods and, when it comes to genetics, some slugs are more closely related to snails than they are to other slugs. This is because some gastropods decided that finding the calcium to make a shell was far too much trouble. Through a process known as vitrinisation, their shell became smaller and either disappeared entirely or absorbed itself inside the body. There are even such things as ‘shelled slugs’ which have a tiny shell on the end of their body as a reminder of what once was. Perhaps the old joke about a slug being a homeless snail is not so far off the mark. Though the slug, unlike the snail, does not have a protective home on its back, they are better equipped to squeeze into places which gives them an alternative means of protection. 

Love Slugs

If seeing a slug as a snail’s less kitted out cousin doesn’t endear you to them, then why not learn to love them through checking out one of their other relations. There’s still much to be learned within this area, but it is generally agreed that land slugs have a common ancestry with sea slugs. Spend some time being wowed by images of these incredibly groovy creatures and consider this: What if your garden slug was just a less showy, more introverted version of a nudibranch? More of a brown cardigan and beige slacks kind of guy than a sixties psychedelic hippy but one who is happy to help you out when your bin is full.

If you don’t already, then I strongly recommend that you learn to love slugs. Having a positive relationship with the cornucopia of slugs around us could enrich our lives and help our children enjoy a better relationship with nature. If every time we see a slug it brings a smile to our face rather than a grimace, then how much better a gloomy rainy day might be. Even if you live in a city, you will often get to see a slug sliming by and you can stop to say hello and thank them for tidying up the dead stuff. They may not be able to hear in the same way that humans do, but they will certainly sense the good vibrations.