Slugs and snails crawl back to top of RHS annual garden pests chart

Gastropods back as No 1 while honey fungus is worst disease in year when lockdowns fuel gardening craze

Slugs and snails are back at the top of the pests chart, after a year in which people spent more time tending their gardens, said the Royal Horticultural Society.

The charity's 25th annual pest and disease ranking - based on enquiries from gardeners - reveals that slugs and snails, a mainstay of the rankings over the years, topped the 2020 list for the first time since 2017, with gardeners reporting damage to crops such as potatoes and beans.