Slow worms in the Compost Bin : A Gardeners Friend

Slow worms in the warmth 

of the Compost Bin

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Slow worms eat slugs, snails and worms, 

plus some caterpillars and insects. 

They can eat up to 50 slugs a day so gardeners love them.

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A slow worm may look like a snake 

(or at least a very large worm), 

but it’s actually a legless lizard. 

There are several things that make it different to a snake.

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Being most active at dusk, slow worms eat mainly slow moving prey such as slugs, worms, snails as well as the odd insect and spider. They do not bite people and are completely harmless. Slow worms, are protected by law and it is a criminal offence to deliberately kill them.

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Slow Worm Facts

• Unlike snakes, it has eyelids so it can blink.
• At up to 50cm long, it’s smaller and thinner that our common native snakes, the adder and the grass snake, which can grow to a metre long.
• It can shed its tail to escape the jaws of predators, such as cats, foxes, hedgehogs and birds of prey. The tail wiggles around to distract the predator while the slow worm slithers away.
• It has a fleshy, blunt tongue with a little notch in it, while snakes have long forked tongues. A slow worm won’t bite you, whereas an adder can give you a nasty, poisonous bite if you bother it.

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