A campaigner is urging shops not to sell slug-killing pellets containing metaldehyde to protect island wildlife.

Sandy Huyton, founder of Manx Hedgehog Conservation Society, said she is appalled that a UK ban on metaldehyde slug pellet products has been overturned after legal action from manufacturer Chiltern Farm Chemicals.

The ban by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was announced in December 2018 with it being scheduled to come into force in June this year.

The pellets were deemed as an ’unacceptable risk’ to wildlife and slugs happen to be a popular food choice for hedgehogs amongst other animals.

However Chiltern, which supplies molluscicides, took the matter to the High Court as it disputed the environmental impact of its products on non-target species.

Ms Huyton has given hundreds of educational talks over the past four years about the ’harmful and toxic garden pesticide poison’, which she says damages wildlife and can impact children and pets.

She said: ’When the metaldehyde slug pellet ban arrived, the Isle of Man embraced this decision and started to remove this product from their shelves.

’The charity has worked tirelessly and independently to educate people about the importance of protecting our hedgehogs and wild birds and the environment as a whole.

’With the legal decision now overturned we are seeking for our local business to stand strong and united and put the Isle of Man on the map as a proud Unesco biosphere partnership and stop selling this harmful garden product.’

The charity works closely with Kirby Park Garden Centre, which has removed the product from sale. She added that Ramsey Garden Centre had also followed suit by request of the MHCS.

’We are in discussions with other garden centres and it’s looking like we are finally respecting our wildlife,’ she said.

A spokesman from Kirby Park Garden Centre confirmed that they had removed products containing metaldehyde from their shelves in time for the ban before it was overturned.

The store will continue to keep it off the shelves in future and provide alternatives to the metaldehyde slug pellets.

For more information about the MHCS, contact [email protected] or search the charity’s Facebook page.