I am sick of slugs INSIDE my house!

[MrsSeanBean]

We have a 1920s brick house.

Slugs somehow get inside the house - mainly at night - and I come down to their horrible slimy trails all over the floor every morning.

I called the pest control people at the council who advised me to lay cracked eggshells outside the air-bricks, but still the problem persists. Aside from laying pellets inside the house (dodgy), I don't know what else to do. Sometimes I come down in the night to get a glass of water and find the slugs crawling around. My patience and sanity is wearing very thin.

(a) Does anyone else have this hideous problem;
(b) if so, how did you solve it?

[traceybath]

I had this in my old cottage and it was vile.

I used to put table salt along the doorsteps - think they used to get in under tne door frames.

Did help for a while but then go too worried about small children licking the salt.

Its really really horrid though - only thing worse was occasionally we'd get a toad or slow worm in the kitchen too.

[GentleOtter]

I picked 4 of them from my daughter's wall last night. They are coming in a hole in the wall caused by a leaking roof that has dripped water and burst the plasterwork.
I stuck duck tape 'plasters' over the wall which does not look rough at all and will wait for all of eternity for the landowner to repair the roof.

Try a strip of copper wire under the skirting boards or places where they get in (under ill fitting doors). I'm off to look for hedgehogs or something as we are about demented with the 'wildlife' in the house. (bats, rats, slugs)

[saramoon]

We get slugs in our lounge most nights as see the trails of them in the mornings. Used to get them a lot in the kitchen but not so much anymore. We chuck them outside if we see them and DH has put salt down but other than that i have heard that they don't like copper and that they love beer and if you put a glass of beer down they all migrate towards it and drink loads and drown, or something.
It is vile and i hate it but it is not our house so we are just putting up with it.

[JackBauer]

I hate slugs and have big fear of them.
The way I got them out of my kitchen was to come down at 3am (in boots) and put the light on, then you see the little fuckers having a party on your floor. Watch to see where they go and then salt the entrance to their hole. Keep DC's away for about a week while you collect starved dessicated slug corpses each morning and throw them out of the back door while cackling.
I found there were 2 lots, one lot in a partition wall and the others behind the fridge, so I pelleted behind the fridge and salted the wall, all gone now.

[IndigoBlue]

We had this problem when we moved into our house I think it's normally where there is damp in the house, they can squeeze themselves through tiny gaps so I would suggest going round and putting sealant over any little gaps around skirting board etc even if it's only a few mm they can still get through.

Put slug pellets outside next to the airbricks and remove any slugs asap as they can recover if they get wet again, make sure they are dead by putting salt on them.

If you find any in the kitchen kill them with salt, it is gross but if you just put them outside they will come back and continue to lay eggs.

I have seen a big fat slug crawling over copper tape that I put down and it had no effect on it whatsoever! It is a very difficult problem to get rid of, I thought we might have to move house!

[MrsSeanBean]

Killing them with salt is very gross and makles a horrendous orange slimy mess. Think liquidised slug pool.

I have tried laying a trail of salt next to the skirting boards (we have wooden floorboards) as a kind of deterrant. DH reckons carpet/lino will stop them but it doesn't a next door have carpet and the same problem. I also make a habit of picking them up with kitchen roll and throwing outside in the night, but I feel like I am swimming against the tide.

Am a bit worried to think there may be a 'damp problem'. Am clueless about this sort of thing - should I seek advice, is it expensive, what needs doing to correct 'damp'? Could we just cut and run by selling up? Or would a survey show a damp problem and mean that ££s would be docked from house value? So confused (and so sick of slugs....)

[MrsSeanBean]

PS... I must confess, sick as I am of the problem, I am also a real softy at heart and can't really bear thr thougt of killing them with salt as apparently it is an agonising and slow death for them.

[dinkystinky]

We had it when we moved into our house last February - turned out was a huge damp problem at the front of our house due to dodgy drain pipe overflow. The survey picked up there was some damp and the overflow needed clearing - was a huge problem judging by the tree root and rubbish blocking the overflow and the tide marks on the front of the house! We finally got all that sorted a month or so ago.

What we did in the interim was try salt (managed to desicate a couple - they were huge too) on the floorboards to start off with but was a bugger to clear the salt up every morning before our toddler came downstairs. I found online a slug repellent spray which was excellent - is a dark brown colour based on oils the slugs hate the smell of for some reason - worked v well on our dark floorboards. Havent seen the buggers for a while - the coming winter will be the acid test as to whether the damp problem has dried out.

[cocolepew]

They used to come in my back door, I put a barrier of salt down and it stopped.

[MrsSeanBean]

Like the sound of slug repellant spray dinky - where did you get this from - a hardware type shop, or garden centre?

[GodzillasBumcheek]

I opened a drawer in the kitchen a few weeks ago, took out a packet of raisins...and there was this enormous black slug stuck to the packet, just where i'd put my finger...EEEEEUURRGH.

I picked it up with kitchen paper, took it outside and stamped on it several times.

Periodically that day i was heard to shout "EEEURGH" and shudder, just remembering it.

[Ripeberry]

You can get self adhesive copper tape from gardening shops> If you know where they are coming in then put some down and they will not cross it as it gives them an electric shock!
I've put this tape around all my plant pots and never get a slug problem.

[Ripeberry]

Or failing that, put a big pot of stale beer on the floor, so they can have a real party and drown! Evil cackle...

[Noonki]

godzilla - i have taken your shudders from you

[Noonki]

godzilla - i have taken your shudders from you

[MagNacarta]

We just got rid of ours after months of waking up to slimy trails over the sitting room carpet. The were getting in through the fireplace (which has a woodburner in it), no idea how as we are mid terrace. DH just put down some of the slug stopper that we bought to protect the strawberries in the garden. No slugs since.

My dc's are old enough to know not to touch it, which helps.

[MrsSeanBean]

MagNacarta - what was the slug stopper you used - was it copper stuff others have mentioned, or some kind of repellent spray?

[idobelieveinfairies]

We used to have a couple that lived under the stairs...slug trails on the carpet and on the lounge ceiling....caught the little beggars one night and took them out in the garden. They never came back again..i think they must have got lost one night and wondered in..and never found the way back out again.

Sorry, not much help...i do remember my mum putting bowls of beer down in the garden many many years ago..think it was something to do with slugs??

[MagNacarta]

Neither MrsSB, it was granular stuff bought from the garden centre 'Growing sucess advanced slug stopper' it says it's certified organic - although not sure what difference that'd make to you.

[MrsSeanBean]

Thank you Magna, will keep a lookout. My prolem is that so many anti-slug products seem to be marketed for outdoor use, and I am never sure whether it's OK to use them indoors (and I get strange looks from garden centre youths when explaining this quandry). I suppose it doesn't make much difference though, the slugs obviously don't know any difference!

[GrimmaTheNome]

I often get trails on my utility room doormat. There is no perceptible gap twixt door and frame yet trails and no slugs come morning. Found two leopard slugs in the box of gardening tools I keep outside the door, presume they are the culprits but can't bring myself to remove them after seeing the amazing leopard slug mating ritual on Springwatch the other week.

I suppose I ought to get some copper tape to keep them in their place. What they are doing on my doormat mystifies me - there is no sign they have been any further inside.

[MrsSeanBean]

I had a weird dream the other night that a slug snuck up on me and stole my penguin biscuit, it was crawling really slowly and then suddenly took me by surprise, snatched the biscuit and 'ran' off cacking (it grew little tentacle like legs in my dream). Sigh. Odd, and very disturbing how my life is being ruled by slugs at the moment.

I found one in my tea-towel drawer ladt week and that really upset me. And I also then had no tea-towels as I had to wash them all.

[GodzillasBumcheek]

Noonki - thanks but i think i'm mentally scarred for life.

[giraffesCantRunA10k]

Oh god. I live in a tenement flat and these are often plagued with beetle things, I have to put raid round the edges of all the floors every month or so and this prevents them. Wonder if something like that would work? Even though its not marketed for them it is for indoor use and frankly they cant like it surely? So worth a try perhaps?

[MyEye]

[boak] Worst ever was finding slug trails all over the peaches ripening in the fruit bowl.

We've had it up to here with them in the kitchen, and DH has decided we will rip up the floor and put down a cement slab so they can't wriggle up through the gaps.

It's a bit drastic (not to mention spenny). But definitely worth it -- if it works.