Developing a Glow Worm Colony

Followers of this Blog will know that we have a lot of slugs.  An awful lot of slugs.  And snails, although as these are regularly collected, purged and eaten they are perhaps less of a pest!  We are tyring to make the garden as attractive as possible to any slug munchers out there.



Hedgehogs are seen and more often heard snuffling and grumbling their way around the garden in good weather and we have ensured there is lots of cover for them.  Our garden is bordered by an area of un-manged woodland on one side, only separated from us by a very deep ditch which is mostly dry in the summer but can run to a metre and a half of fast flowing water during flooding.  We have made the decision to leave a metre wide strip uncut on our side of the ditch, giving the hogs  more cover and hopefully benefiting many other species, too.  And perhaps discouraging the pesky raspberry and pea-eating roe deer as well.

This spring we have also put in a good sized pond, 2m x 2m.  From the word go we have had a healthy population of toads in the garden, but giving them and any frogs somewhere to breed has to be a good thing.  Within a week the pond had attracted dragonflies and damsel flies laying eggs, boatman and diving beetles as well as a huge number of pond skaters.  Yesterday we saw a newt briefly surfacing.

The pond just a few weeks old and still a work in progress

The fun project has been trying to increase our glow worm colony.  Our first summer here we saw a single glowing female in May and another in September.  I found one larva whilst digging in the potager.  The following summer there was again a single glowing female in the spring but gardening probably turned over half a dozen larvae during the course of the year.  I was getting good at spotting their slightly blueish bodies and quickly realised that they favoured the edges of the vegetable beds.  Any uncovered were left alone if the ground was not going to be disturbed again that year, or relocated to a neighbouring bed where they could be left in peace.  I did favour beds with more vulnerable crops.


We have ensured that there are plenty of grassy places around then garden and keeping the rest of the cutting really high from May until sometime in August,  We have also left a large area eight metres by eight metres to flower; this will only be cut once in late August and is usually a mass of butterflies.

Un-cut meadow

Grass at the top of the bank

And I think we must be doing something right because this year, 2013, turning over the vegetable beds, weeding and planting probably turns up half a dozen larvae a day, a massive increase on four summers ago.  And with the start of the glowing season in mid June, we have already seen six glowing females in the area just around the house.  Last week a group of three were so bright they could be seen from the mosquito free comfort of the house!

I have also slightly changed my Slug Hunting regime and zero tolerance in the potager has given way to allowing the tiniest slugs to survive as dinner for the glow worms.  Although there is nothing quite like watching a larva take on one of the big giant orange monsters.

Female glowing amongst some very poor vegetation on a clay bank

Adding a brief bit of light to better see the glowing female.  We have very little light pollution which increases the chances of a passing male spotting a glowing female.

Glowing...

The main area of female glowing with three tucked in around the steps up the still sparsely vegetated bank.

Fingers are crossed for an ever increasing colony of glow worms and an ever decreasing population of slugs.  Which reminds me, it must be about time for a spot of slug hunting.

I'd love to hear about other gardeners, in South West France in particular, who are actively managing their land with glow worms in mind.

July 2013 update - glowing females are attracting males within an hour or so of starting to glow. 
26/07/13 a single female had 7 males interested within an hour of starting to glow.  This is great news!!