Garden: Cuttings - News From The Gardeners' World

Recently, I mentioned slug damage on Iris unguicularis. Professor Humphrey Kay of Pewsey wrote to say that his have been nibbled too, but he found the initial culprit was a caterpillar, "the omnivorous Angle Shades moth species, a handsome specimen which I illogically released into the wild. He was succeeded by slugs, and my grapefruit campaign since mid-Feb has yielded 935 slugs and allowed the iris to produce 150-plus blooms on two clumps.

"Could you, do you think, encourage people to use their hunting instinct genes to control slugs and snails? Torchlight hunts for snails are great fun and in past years have produced over 500 snails per year - exiled to a distant railway cutting where, I hope, some will be found by our decreasing friends, the song thrushes."

More suggestions welcome on the tricky question of how to dispose of the wretched things once you have caught them.