Slugist Lite Subscription — Service Terms
These terms sit alongside our general Customer Terms and our Privacy Policy
1 What the Slugist Lite subscription is
The Slugist Lite subscription is our lower-cost slug and snail collection service, giving your garden protection during the key parts of the season. As a Lite subscriber you receive four full collection visits across the season, a free annual winter health check, and access to our optional services. Slug control is carried out by nighttime selective species collection, without using chemical pesticides — we collect only the pest species, leave beneficial species undisturbed, and dispose of collected pests humanely.
2 What's included
Four collection nights. You receive four full bait-and-collect visits across the season. Each comprises an early-evening visit in daylight to lay bait stations and slug glide strips at chosen points in your garden, followed by a return visit later the same evening, in darkness, to collect the pest slugs and snails and remove all the bait stations and equipment.
We schedule these visits around slug activity, weather, and the points in the season when collection is most effective — concentrated at the start and end of the season, the peak activity periods. The optimum timing is chosen by us rather than fixed in advance. Four visits provide protection during the peak months but do not maintain full control across the whole season; gardeners wanting fuller coverage may prefer the Standard subscription.
Winter health check. You also receive a free annual winter health check — a daytime visit to advise on winter protection and prepare your garden for the season ahead. Any protection materials you choose are charged separately.
Quick sweep visits are not included in the Lite subscription. They are a benefit of the Standard subscription.
3 A survey first
If you have not already had one, your subscription begins with a free garden survey, carried out before your first collection visit so that we understand your garden and can place bait effectively and work safely after dark.
4 Our collection guarantee
Typically, we will remove a significant proportion of active slugs and snails from your garden during each visit, clearing from the bait stations and also from containers, beds, borders, and other parts of the garden. The following morning you will receive a report detailing what we found — with pictures. We are dealing with wildlife and the British weather, so sometimes the slugs are hiding away. If we collect fewer than 5 pest slugs and snails on a collection visit, that visit is not counted against your four, and we will carry out a further full collection on another night at no extra charge. If the repeat collection also yields fewer than 5, it is counted as completed. Baby slugs and snails are always hatching, and slugs come in from neighbouring gardens, so the service reduces numbers over the season but re-infestation is always possible.
5 How the subscription works
The subscription runs for an initial term of 12 months and is paid monthly. After the initial 12 months, unless you tell us otherwise, it continues on a rolling monthly basis, so your garden remains protected without a gap. During this rolling period you can cancel at any time, with immediate effect and no penalty, by contacting us. We may adjust the price or structure of the service for the continuing period in light of the previous season; if we do, we will tell you before any change takes effect, and you are free to cancel immediately if the new terms do not suit you.
6 Cancelling during the initial 12 months
If you sign up online, you have a legal right to cancel within 14 days of entering into the subscription, under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013. If you cancel within this period, we settle on the basis of any service already delivered at your request.
After the 14-day period, you can still cancel before the end of the 12-month term. Because the service is seasonal and front-loaded — the most valuable collections fall early in the season, and very little happens over winter — the amount you have paid month by month and the amount of service you have actually received can differ in either direction. So when you cancel early, we carry out a fair settlement: we compare the value of the collections you have received against the payments you have made. Depending on the timing, this may mean we refund you, or it may mean a balancing payment is due to us.
How the settlement is worked out
Each completed collection visit represents three monthly payments of service value, because your annual subscription is spread across four collections.
We compare the value of the collections you have received against the payments you have made:
Value of collections received = 3 × (number of collections completed) × (your monthly charge)
Payments made = (number of monthly payments received) × (your monthly charge)
The settlement is the value of collections received minus the payments made. If this is positive, that amount is payable to us; if it is negative, we refund the difference to you. The garden survey and the winter health check are not counted in this calculation.
7 If we cannot complete a visit
If access fails. If we cannot carry out a notified visit because access is not available — for example a locked gate or a dog loose in the garden — we will try again within 14 days. If access fails more than once in a 12-month period, that visit is treated as completed.
If we cannot attend. If we are unable to carry out a planned visit for our own reasons, we will reschedule it within 7 days.
8 Visit timing and notifications
Slug collection depends on weather and slug activity, so visit dates and times are arranged at short notice and may change. On the morning of a planned visit we will text and email you to confirm we are coming that evening. Please ensure you have given us permission to send you text messages if you want to receive this alert — go to "Account" at the bottom of the member page to manage your messaging preferences.
If the evening does not suit you, please let us know as soon as you can, using the link in your message or by contacting us at hello@hortimate.uk — not by replying to the text, as our text messages are sent from an unmonitored number and replies are not received. We will then rearrange. You do not need to be at home or awake for a visit, provided you have given us a safe means of garden access.
9 Optional upgrades
The following can be added to your Slugist service. Where a charge applies, it is shown on our website.
Slug deterrent treatment (free). During a collection visit we can apply our non-toxic surface deterrent to hard garden surfaces near vulnerable planting. It does not kill slugs — it discourages them from crossing — and is harmless to pets, children, slugs and wildlife. Included at no charge.
Nematode soil treatment (paid). For slug species that live and feed below ground, particularly around vegetable beds and bulbs, we offer a professional nematode soil treatment, applied in spring or autumn. Charged at the price shown on our website.
Leopard slug introduction (paid). The leopard slug is a beneficial species that hunts and eats pest slugs and their eggs, giving natural long-term control. We can introduce leopard slugs to your garden. Charged at the price shown on our website.
10 Upgrading to Standard
You can upgrade to a Slugist Standard subscription at any time. Your Slugist Lite subscription will cease immediately with no cancellation penalty, and a 12 month Slugist standard subscription will start. On upgrade, you immediately gain all Standard benefits, including quick sweep visits on high-activity nights and additional collection visits.
11 Winter sign-up
If you join between October and March, your monthly billing does not begin until April when slugs are active again and the collection service starts, and your 12-month minimum term runs from April — so you are not paying through the quiet winter months before the service gets going. Your garden survey is carried out before your subscription starts.
12 How we contact you
We will contact you about your visits by email and, where you have agreed to it, by SMS. You can manage your SMS preference in your member profile. How we use your contact details is explained in our Privacy Policy.
13 Access and your responsibilities
You are responsible for providing safe garden access, keeping your access details up to date, and telling us about hazards and pets to be secured. Because Slugist visits take place at night, we ask that you let your neighbours know to expect us, so our presence in your garden with a torch does not cause alarm. We may be unable to complete a visit if safe access is not available, in which case the access rules in section 7 apply.
14 General
Our general Customer Terms and our Privacy Policy apply to the Slugist Lite subscription. Where these terms cover something specific to the service, they apply in addition to our general terms.