New Rules to Control Spanish Slugs, but No State Funding
Spanish slugs have been found in all regions of Latvia. New regulations require municipalities to limit their spread, but enforcement is difficult and no state funding has been allocated this year.
First detected in Latvia in 2009, the Spanish slug has now spread across all regions of the country. Experts from the Nature Conservation Agency admit that complete eradication is no longer possible. The main goal now is to protect unaffected areas and reduce slug numbers where they have already proliferated.
Under new regulations, local municipalities are obligated to take measures to control the spread of this invasive species. However, monitoring compliance is challenging, and the state budget has not allocated any funding for this purpose this year. This raises concerns about the effectiveness of local efforts.
“The species is here to stay. We will not be able to fully eradicate it,” says Santa Rutkovska, head of the Invasive Species Unit at the Nature Conservation Agency. She emphasizes that the priority is to safeguard still-clean areas and decrease slug populations in already infested zones.
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