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How does one attract Slow Worms?

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Mindy View Drop Down
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    Posted: 08 Aug 2005 at 10:55am

I have heard about slow worms, but I have never, ever seen one.  I wondered what I could do to attract them?  I have compost bins this year, which I'm told they like, but how would they know they were there?

I know there are rules, etc, governing the movement of such things so that's not what I'm asking about.  I do not know of a legal way of acquiring slow worms for the garden.  I live 3 miles off the centre of Bristol.  My garden was barren, not even any birds when I moved in 5 years ago.  I put in a pond after the first summer and now I have hedgehogs, birds, frogs/toads... the place has just come alive.  Just add water!  I haven't noticed any newts so far. 

I have plenty of slugs and snails in the garden as with the frogs, etc, I can't use slug pellets anymore, so there's plenty to eat!  I wonder if they're that common in this area?  I really wouldn't know.  I've only ever heard stories about them.  Never seen one in real life.  Is it just luck of the draw?  If they come, they come, if they don't, they don't?

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Suzi View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Suzi Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Aug 2005 at 5:55pm

Mindy,

You have obviously created a good place for wildlife - it's amazing what will just arrive. With regards to slow worms I don't know how far they will travel to find a suitable habitat but it is amazing how many are found in urban settings with very few people being aware they have them in their garden. If you have compost bins that aren't disturbed too often and the slow worms are in the vicinity then they will find them and move in. They also like lying under old foam backed carpet or black plastic or sheets of corrugated iron.

Suz
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote administrator Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Aug 2005 at 6:49pm

Hi Mindy, welcome to RAUK,

In general colonisation by reptiles is a factor of how close suitable habitat is. Mature gardens are suitable habitat for slow-worms so there is always a chance. My advice would be to deploy the artificial cover boards Suzi has suggested, such as carpet, tins and roofing felt, as it is possible they are already there but you just haven't seen them. Something like 95% of the slow-worms I see in a year are under something and not out in the open.

We had colonisation by slow-worms in just over a year after we turned over a third of our garden to wildlife. The keys have been leaving grass to grow and never mowing it (we just flatten areas occasionally to keep sunny aspects open for reptiles, they use the underlying 'thatch' of grassland as do small mammals, and mowing destroys this), creating piles of logs and brash and a large hibernation bund. The hibernation bund was simply lots of old bricks and bits from the garden covered with grass turfs.

Good luck and let us know if any arrive

PS It isn't illegal to move slow-worms from a site given the land owners permission, but in all it is far better to let animals colonise gardens naturally.

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Mindy View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mindy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Aug 2005 at 3:17am

I have to admit, I do mow my grass, but even if I didn't, my guinea pigs do a good job of trimming it (though they don't seem to be able to chew it in a way that leaves those stripes on the lawn)

However, I do leave the grass long along the fence (where I often find a hedgehog hiding) and around the trees (where tiny baby frogs collect).  Plus all down the side that has the pond is hedge, brambles and another tree.  I don't do anything to that side of the garden.  The back fence is also a bit "wild".  There are nettles and rocks, etc.  And a little hobby greenhouse.  As well as the two compost bins.  One is full and being left alone now.  The other is in the process of being filled.  There's also the pile where I put cuttings and twigs when I cut stuff back.  To let it all dry out, etc.  There is usually a toad or something under there. 

Maybe next Spring when the compost bins have been smouldering all winter... maybe then I'll find slow worms.  There is a big park at the end of my road (about 75yds away) that has giant mature trees (I think the park is Victorian).  There are many types of birds in there, and a big lake/pond thing.  I wonder if there is habitat in there for such things as slow worms, etc...You often see hedgehogs wandering up the road from that direction...

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote administrator Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Aug 2005 at 5:34am

Sounds like you have plenty of suitable habitat for slow-worms. Do try placing corrugated tins or squares of roofing felt, especially along the bottom of the hedge and around the brambles if it catches the sun for part of the day. Just check them in the morning and evening and after a few days, you might be pleasantly surprised

Here is one of ours found under a piece of roofing felt, if we had not put down the artifical refuges we wouldn't have had a clue that they had colonised this year.

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Mindy View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mindy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Aug 2005 at 5:45am

Hmmm... <she wonders> Did I finally throw out that roll of old roofing felt I've had lying around for a couple years, or is it still tucked away somewhere...

It's hard to get a sense of scale from pictures... how big are these?  They look sort of small snake length.  I'm imagining up to around 1ft.  But I have no idea.  They could be the size of earthworms for all I know!  They are beautiful though.  I love the smooth glass-like appearance.  Just gorgeous.

Do cats bother slow worms?  My neighbours cats like to get under that tree (to watch birds, etc, in my garden) when I haven't got the Scarecrow set up nearby.  I could line the whole of the underneath the tree with bramble cuttings though.  That might deter the little blighters... (the cats I mean...)

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote administrator Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Aug 2005 at 6:50am

We have some info about slow-worms at:

http://www.herpetofauna.co.uk/slow_worm.htm

In all cats are less of a problem to slow-worms than they are for say common lizards as slow-worms are semi-fossorial (spend a lot of time underground out of sight) though cats of course take a toll and we receive many reports of slow-worms killed or brought into houses by cats. Sites that have a lot of cats often have a lot of slow-worms with missing tails too, though plenty of vegetation structure and cover will favour the slow-worms. Garden birds can also take their toll on juvenile reptiles, though again a pile of bramble cuttings or hedge clippings etc will give good cover.

There is an electronic device for deterring cats from wildlife gardens, I don't know if anyone has details but basicly it is an alarm that other animals cannot hear. It goes off every time a cat enters the garden. It doesn't harm them, but as cats are sensitive animals they soon learn that they are not welcome. Our solution comes in the form of 'Zeb' our daft dog that barks at anything feline, the postman, anyone who phones us etc. etc.

 

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Mindy View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mindy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Aug 2005 at 6:56am

I have one of those ultra sonic alarms (which I just bought new batteries for) as well as the best deterrent EVER... The Scarecrow.  It's basically a sprinker head attached to a motion detector, which is attached to your hosepipe.  When a cat (or anything big enough - dogs, herons, whatever) is detected, the sprinker hisses into action spraying water everywhere and making noise.  The cats run like their backsides are on fire.  I laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh....

Fortunately, the hedgehogs don't set it off.  Though I have accidentally set it off when going out to spy on my little hedgies at night.  I totally got one drenched one night and he stood there sneezing for a few minutes.  Oops!

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote calumma Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Aug 2005 at 5:32am
I just have to get one of those Scarecrows!!

Details of the device for other cat frustrated herpers can be found here...
Lee Brady

Kent Herpetofauna Recorder | Independent Ecological Consultant



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Vicar Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Aug 2005 at 11:57am

Mindy...To help with scale...here's a pic of a medium sized one hand held.

Steve Langham - Chairman    
Surrey Amphibian & Reptile Group
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