Meet the Slow worms
Slow worms, despite their name, are neither worms nor slow. They are actually legless lizards that can move surprisingly quickly when they need to. These fascinating reptiles usually live in areas with grass and trees, preferring places with plenty of cover such as rocks, logs, and dense vegetation.
What they need
- Slow worms are ectothermic, meaning they rely on external sources of heat to regulate their body temperature. Like other reptiles, they need a habitat that provides both sunny basking spots and cooler, sheltered areas so that they can warm up or cool down
- In terms of diet, slow worms are carnivorous and feed mainly on slugs, snails, insects, and worms, playing an important role in maintaining a balanced ecosystem
Slow worms also need suitable nesting sites for breeding and hibernation
- They often choose areas with loose soil or compost heaps where they can burrow and lay their eggs. Hibernation sites are crucial for their survival during the colder months, and disturbances to these sites can have a harmful effect on their populations.
What you can do to help
- Rockeries, log piles and dry stone walls are great because they make particularly good basking spots as well as being full of nooks and crannies to hide away and keep cool in. Artificial reptile refugia are basically corrugated iron or plastic moulds that heat up in the sun, warming the slow worms that fit snugly into the tunnels underneath .
- Areas of rotting vegetation, like compost heaps, hugel mounds, leaf piles and leaf mould cages, can be lovely warm places for slow worms to curl up in and sleep through the winter. They can also make great breeding spots so be very careful to check who’s in there before disturbing them.
- Wildlife-friendly areas like long grass, meadow patches and shrubs and hedges provide foraging areas and cover for slow worms moving around, and make sure there are gaps in fences and walls.
- If it’s good, or bad, for invertebrates, the same goes for slow worms. Everything described so far is good for the things that slow worms eat, and pollinator-friendly planting and shallow-edged ponds of any size will also help, especially on hot dry days. Minimise polluting pesticides and chemical fertilisers to avoid poisoning slow worms and their prey.
- If you encounter slow worms or suspect their presence, be sure to put their habitat back the way you found it and minimise disturbing them, especially during colder months when they could be hibernating.
Fascinating facts
- Despite their appearance, slow worms are not snakes but belong to the lizard family. They have eyelids and can blink, unlike snakes.
- Slow worms can shed their tails as a defence mechanism when threatened by predators. The detached tail continues to wriggle, distracting the predator while the slow worm escapes.
- These remarkable creatures have been known to live up to 20 years, making them one of the longest-living reptiles in the UK.
