With results from our recent Make Your Nature Count garden wildlife survey suggesting that as many as one in 10 of you have slow worms in your garden, why not get to know them a bit better this weekend?
As Maurice recently pointed out on this very blog, there is nothing to fear from these legless lizards.
In fact, with their habit of feeding on slugs, snails, spiders and many other small insect pests, slow worms are certainly a creature I'm hoping for in my garden.
At this time of year, mated females will be getting ready to give birth, so don't be surprised if you see small flashes of iridescent silver, gold, bronze or copper slinking around your garden undergrowth as the young start to find their 'feet' and explore their new world.
Attracting slow worms
The good news is that it's pretty easy to attract slow worms to your patch.
A combination of any of the following in your garden could turn it into the 'go to' destination for your local slow worms: flower borders, rocks and dead wood can provide lots of sheltering, basking and hibernating places for slow worms. You could also try putting out a piece of tin in a discrete, but warm, location to encourage slow worms to shelter underneath.
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