What do slaters eat

Female slaters keep their eggs in a pouch until the young hatch. Hatchlings then leave the parent and are completely independent. Slaters grow through a series of moults in which the outer rigid skeleton is shed, allowing growth to the next larger skeleton and finally adult stage. During moulting the slater is very vulnerable and must find shelter. Mulch, compost and regular watering favours the development of dense slater populations as they feed mainly on decaying organic matter.

They help the breakdown of organic matter and can be at low population densities. At high densities, they can damage new seedlings and ripe fruit, such as strawberries in contact with the ground. Orchid growers report slaters feeding on the roots and damaging the growing tips of plants.

Where slaters are considered pests try to make the environment less favourable to them. Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Slaters are a multi-legged, land-living crustacean found all over Australia. They're scavengers, which mean they mainly feed on decaying organic matter and, in doing so, recycle nutrients and help build soil.

Unfortunately, every now and again they turn their attention to living vegetable matter and that's when they can become an absolute nightmare in the garden. In recent years there has been an explosion of slaters in Western Australia.

Josh thinks this is probably as a result of the mulch everyone has been putting on their gardens which creates perfect conditions for them to breed up to high numbers. How do you know if you've got them? Josh says, "They're shy creatures that are mostly active at night. If you scrape back the mulch or look under pots, you'll find them scurrying about, and if you've noticed vegie seedlings disappear overnight they're quite possibly the culprit.

They'll also munch into soft fruits lying on the ground. Their other annoying habit is ring-barking seedlings, particularly young fleshy stems of such plants as melons, beans and brassicas. They even started eating the leaves of Josh's mature eggplants and tomatoes, which are normally toxic to most creatures.

As organic gardeners we don't want to eradicate slaters - firstly that is simply not possible and secondly, they do have a role to play. We just need to manage them. Josh offers these suggestions:. Try a combination of these strategies and you'll find the benefits of having slaters in your garden will soon outweigh the disadvantages.

All common names for this multi legged, land living crustacean you probably call a Slater. Most slaters are about 6 to 12 mm in length and dark grey in colour. Their bodies have 14 segments, 7 pairs of legs and two pairs of antennae, though the second pair is small and hard to see. Slaters are common all across Australia. Two of the most common varieties of slater are introduced from Europe but are now found across Australia.

Just like worms, slaters are great for your garden as they eat organic matter and return nutrients to the soil. Having a few slaters around will keep your plants happy and healthy. Slaters need moisture and mostly come out at night when the risk of drying out is low. Slaters navigate with specialised equipment. The new baby slaters stay in the pouch for a short time after they hatch. Young slaters look like adults except they have one less body segment and pair of legs.

Slaters grow by moulting. A new skin grows underneath their tough, outer skeleton, which splits into two pieces.