Giant Spanish slugs invade the UK
Monster killer slugs that can grow up to the size of a guinea pig are invading the UK.
The Giant Spanish Slugs (Arion vulgaris) are immune to poison and eat the smaller slugs and snails that are native to Britain.
They even eat dead animals, like mice, and faeces.
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Speaking to the The Sun, slug expert Dorin Pop, of Bayer Crop Science, said the relatively warm winter and high rainfall in summer has helped them breed and survive, explaining: "We had quite a lot of rain this year, in comparison to what we had last year.
"This has helped as they have had the moisture they need. We didn't have a very cold winter so there would have been a low mortality rate. Most of them would have survived."
It is believed the slugs first came to Britain on imported salad.
There was a large problem with them after the balmy winter of 2012.
The slugs can lay up to 400 eggs a year, and have no predators as birds and hedgehogs avoid them because they are too slimy.
Speaking to the Mirror, Dr Ian Bedford, an expert in the Spanish slug and a member of SlugWatch, said: "If you find them in your garden you must kill them because they reproduce so rapidly.
"An infestation can be devastating, so if you find them in large numbers you must drown them overnight in a bucket of soapy water and then bury them in the ground.
"We have to keep down the numbers because they can decimate crops."
After an invasion of them in 2014, a local resident in Cambridgeshire told ITV News: "I've never seen anything like them. They're huge and they leave a trail behind them half an inch wide.
"They don't seem to be affected by pellets - the only way to stop them is to spear them."
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