The Guardian view on slugs and snails: what's in a name? Plenty it turns out | Editorial

The way we choose to describe the world often determines how we react to it. A different view of garden gastropods might be better for allSlugs and snails regularly appear on lists of the most irritating garden pests; only last year the Royal Horticultural Society noted they had slid to the top after a few seasons hiding near the bottom. But the RHS this month announced that it will no longer consider them as pests. In fact, all invertebrates, usually felt to interfere with gardeners' best-laid plans, will be celebrated. Coincidentally, scientists also argued last week that British wildflowers named in the 1959 Weeds Act as injurious - and therefore subject to compulsory control - should be allowed, within reason, to thrive.The reasons for both changes of heart are similar. Slugs and snails are an important part of a garden's ecosystem, eating dead leaves, for instance, or being eaten by hedgehogs, toads and birds. Earwigs, wrens and dunnocks eat aphids; blue tits time breeding so that their young will find plenty of caterpillars. As for the injurious weeds, three of the five most feared (ragwort, creeping thistle, spear thistle) turn out to be far more popular with pollinators than those recommended by Defra. Continue reading...