BBC Breakfast audience members have been surprised and troubled by a journalist’s disclosure about ‘tearing apart’ slugs.
The pests are a problem for many gardeners, but the broadcaster’s climate and environment correspondent Jonah Fisher had a very strong reaction to them.
‘They have always been seen as opponents of gardeners everywhere, but now there is a new campaign aiming to give slugs and snails a different image,’ Naga Munchetty began.
Co-host Charlie Stayt continued: ‘The Royal Horticultural Society wants us to reconsider our negative views of the much-criticized creatures by acknowledging their contributions to the ecosystem.’
And for Fisher in particular, the slugs truly are adversaries, as he described it as a ‘fierce battle between the gardener and the slug and the snail’.
During the morning report live from RHS Wisley, he then confessed: ‘I was out in my allotment in Cardiff last weekend, I didn’t know I was coming to speak to you, and every time I saw a slug, I picked it up, I ripped it apart, I killed it, because I didn’t want it eating my plants.’
Viewers were shocked at Fisher confessing he ‘tore apart’ the slimy creatures, with X user @trackso367 writing: ‘Who the hell is the presenter talking about slugs- “I find them, pick them up and rip them apart, i kill them”. What kind of maniacs are you hiring!’
@sam_hasell added: ‘Your reporter is a psychotic nutter who rips slugs apart?’
‘Ripped a slug apart? Did I hear that correctly?’ @djrustynail wrote.
Others were on the side of the expert, with Dr Juliet writing on X: ‘I love watching my Bugman @AndrewSalisbur2 on the tellybox, and I love the fact he’s asking us all to be nice to #slugs and #snails.’
Fisher added that across the country other gardeners would be agreeing that we ‘have to stop’ the slugs and snails from eating their plants.
However, the segment went on to show how slugs actually are vital for a ‘healthy balance in a garden’ and to ‘accept a bit of damage’.
BBC Breakfast airs from 6am on BBC One.
