Slugs and snails exasperate gardeners everywhere. The only effective chemical control has been banned and its replacement is still relatively untested and has its own environmental issues. And now the RHS says that we should treat slugs and snails as 'garden visitors'. What is going on?

The Good Slug Guideexplains why conventional controls often fail, what slugs and snails really get up to in our gardens, what they really eat, what eats them, and includes many practical tips on how reduce the damage done by pesky molluscs.

Prepare for surprises. Slug pellets probably help rather than hinder real nasties. The usual advice of 'keep the garden neat and tidy' can make things worse and the organic advice to 'encourage hedgehogs, frogs and toads' turns out to be mostly wrong. Instead, there are more than 70 garden friends who are natural enemies of slugs and snails, ranging from mammal to microbe. There are even a few useful predatory slugs and snails.

Most scientists are not gardeners, and most gardeners are not scientists, and very few scientist-gardeners have a background in the ecology of decomposition along with a deep interest in environmental toxicology. This fortunate combination of skills and knowledge has prepared Jo Kirby uniquely to write a gardening book for the modern age. Laid out in an easy-to-follow manner with sound, practical advice on how to achieve a resilient garden, this timely book will change the way you think about your garden - and your slugs!

Books by Jo Kirby