silvery slime trails in my house - slugs?

[pollydianasmummy]

We have just moved to a barn and put down a new carpet. I have noticed silvery trails beginning to appear - they look like slug or snail trails. Though I have never seen any slugs in the house. Do they only come out at night? Where the heck do they go during the day? Could it be some other beasty?

How can I stop them?

Any ideas welcome.

[Bucharest]

Yes, or snails.
Slug pellets? (thinking about my Mum's garden)

[pollydianasmummy]

ha - yes i do have a baby with a runny nose but she's still stationary at this moment!

so do slugs only come out at night?

[NoSquirrels]

Ugh. It'll be horrible slimy slugs you've got. And yes, they hide in the day and come out at night. Wear shoes if you're walking downstairs in the dark, I speak from bitter experience!

Last house we lived in had slug trails in the kitchen. They came out at night from a crack in the wall by the skirting board (very small crack) and feasted on the cat's dry food which was always down. If you came down about 2 hours after having gone to bed (enough time in the dark for them to emerge, basically) you would find them all in the cat's bowl, or on a march to or from the wall where they hid out. We blocked that hole and they came up through the exposed floorboard cracks. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

Try and follow the trails back to see where they're coming from and then pellet the bejeezus out of them. Do it before your baby starts moving! Also, copper tape is supposed to wor, so you could put it round the edge of the room (but they crawled over ours when we tried it, I'm afraid.)

Good luck. I am so glad we moved, I still get the shivers thinking about it.

[CarmelitaMiggs]

We've had a slug issue on the ground floor.

Still shudder at the memory of tracks all over my bowl of ripening peaches [vom].

Tried wedging paper into the floorboards, slug pellets, beer traps, tommy guns, napalm -- they were unstoppable, like the Terminator.

In desperation (and at vast expense) we have moved out and commenced building work. Last week the concrete slab was poured. Concrete boots and jackets and helmets for all the little buggers. I sincerely hope we've seen the last of them.

[pollydianasmummy]

God that is some last resort Carmelita!

It sounds like they are pretty persistent which I can imagine could become a bit of a nightmare. Anyway for starters I have salted up all the doors and window ledges to see if I can catch any of the nasties.

Thanks for advice and tales ...

x

[Tootiredforgodtyping]

salt in all the holes worked for us.

[geordieminx]

Salt then block holes up with tissue paper.

We had them across our ceiling... bleurghhhhh

[HarveysFurniture]

I agree, it's almonst definitely slugs, I had a similar problem in my old house and we had to use the salt. Cleared the problem up quickly though so I wouldn't worry. Liz

[JackBauer]

Yup, it's slugs, the little feckers.

Try turning all the lights out downstairs at night and then come down (IN SHOES - this is veyr important) a few hours later and turn on the lights. If you can see any they will go straight 'home' and you can barricade their doors with a nice big wall of salt.
We did this and for about a week I was removing corpses.

There is one in my sink drain atm, (vom) and I have to put away all my washing up or it has trails all over it the nxt morning

I know he is hiding in the overflow so every night I pour salt down it in the hopes of murdering him....

[BadGardener]

We have them and they have resisted all attempts to get rid of them with slug pellets (which I am loath to do anyway as we have young children).
I am tempted to lock the chickens in the living room at night. They would poo all over the furniture but I would only have to do it once.

[CarmelitaMiggs]

Oh, please do the chicken thing -- genius

[JackBauer]

YY,chicken them! Mwaaahahahahhaaaa.

You could hire them out as pest control.

[LooL00]

salt worked for us.If it hadn't my next step was going to be slug killer from Garden Organic

[iszzabella]

hi read you problem .....have you tried the slugbell........go to www.slugbell.com

iszzabella

[Raiyah3]

Is slug slime meant to be wet after they have left a trail? On a few occasions i have come home and on the mat in the passage theres like a shiny foamy substance that looks a little like a web but when i touch it with my finger its not wet and just disappears. There is no consistency to it at all. Almost invisible. Is this slug slime or something else?
Thanks