Where are the slugs?

An adult hedgehog can easily eat up to 200 grams of insects a night. That means it would take a single hedgehog only three months to munch its way through a slug-infested garden measuring 90 square metres.

It may not come as a surprise that they're not called hedgehogs for nothing: they really do like to hang out and seek their prey in and around hedges. However, the poor hedgehog is effectively barred from many potential habitats by perimeter walls and fencing. And if they do find a way in, we need to put in a bit of effort to encourage these valuable pest controllers to take up residence.

Meticulously tidy gardeners may recoil at the idea of doing less gardening and leaving grass long and piles of leaves all over the place. But if you want to provide habitat for a range of species, to ensure the hedgehog has a varied diet, that wildlife won't care what it looks like. (Information from an article by Dave Hamilton - The Guardian, Friday 8 June 2012)

Our visiting hedgehog is more than welcome in our garden.