UK Farmers Trial Slug Prediction Maps to Cut Pesticides
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- Harper Adams University researchers built slug "prediction maps" using data from 28 "slug sleuth" farmers, as part of a three-year, £2.6 million Defra-funded programme called SLIMERS.
- Professor Keith Walters confirmed slug clusters temporarily reform in unexpected locations after soil waterlogging, then return to their predicted areas once conditions normalise.
- More than 100 farms have taken part in the scheme, including Bedfordshire-based wheat farmer Charles Paynter.
- Paynter said the maps let him apply "more targeted treatments which has the potential to be less damaging to biodiversity" and raised his threshold for taking control measures.
- Researchers say the model works despite "low slug numbers" during testing and fits with modern commercial equipment, with hopes of "more precise control of slugs in arable fields" and reduced pesticide use.
Why it matters: Across more than 100 farms now enrolled, the prediction maps let farmers treat only where slugs are forecast, raising intervention thresholds and cutting blanket pesticide use — a direct gain for both farm input costs and arable biodiversity. The £2.6 million Defra backing signals official appetite to move UK arable spraying from calendar-based to precision-based treatment.
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