slow worms in my compost!

[beach chick]

help! in addition to my dalek, I have 3 homemade compost heaps, consisting of old pallets with black plastic stapled round the sides and back, and a flap coming over the top. they are filled with a mix of grass cuttings, chicken waste (sawdust and poo), and more or less anything else found round the garden. not much veg waste tho, I tend to put that in the dalek.

have been quite good about mixing them up, but since adding the plastic and now the chicken waste, I find they are a haven for slow worms - as soon as you take the plastic off, they are all there lying on the top, perfectly happy.

trouble is, I want to give them a bit of a turn quite soon and add some more grass clippings - can I do this at any time, or would the slow worms be nesting or someting? is there a time of year when it would be better to turn them? if so I can just add more stuff to the top of each one, which I assume wouldnt hurt the slow worms?

[terrier]

Isn't a slow worm a type of snake? Shivvvveeerrr!

[PAULW]

TERRIER
Its a legless lizard

[beach chick]

they make me go legless!! but I dont want to hurt them....

[SimonCole]

I'd stick on gloves and turn by hand because it will probably do less damage.

[beach chick]

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek! not sure I'm brave enough.

[PAULW]

NOTE: It's a criminal offence to kill or injure any of the UK's native reptiles. Slow-worms are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981. It is an offence to kill, harm, injure, sell or trade them in any way.

[terrier]

TERRIER
Its a legless lizard

That's what OH calls me when I come back from the pub after (one) too many

[Stacey]

oh wow ive never heard of them can you take a picture? are they a good thing to have in your garden?

[Headfry]

ooooh you are lucky, wish I had them in my heap!!!

[TPeers]

You lucky, lucky thing! I haven't seen a slow worm in years!

As said they are a type of lizard, if you google them I think there is a replile society which would be able to give you advice.

Terry

[TPeers]

Look here - http://www.herpconstrust.org.uk/animals/slow_worm.htm

[Snadger]

That's what OH calls me when I come back from the pub after (one) too many

Snap!!!!!

[Snadger]

I remember when I was a kid showing a slow worm to my cousin. She thought it was a plastic snake until it shot out it's little black forked tongue whereupon she nearly crapped herself!

[JennieAtkinson]

We use a good plastic look alike snake on our boat to stop the birds sitting on the top and doing their business. Works a treat and fairly frightens the life out of the pain-in-the-butt inquisitive child.

My brother used to find slowworms in the garden at home when we were kids. As far as I was concerned worm was completely the wrong word, its a SNAKE!