Slugs!!!! Help!!!!

[Ellaroo]

Can anyone helped?? Since moving into an old Victorian house last year our kitchen has been infested with slugs (mostly on the carpet, but one on a work surface!!!!). We think they are getting in through the gaps under the cupboards so we have used lots of masking tape to seal all the little gaps off (yes, it does look a bit strange!), this worked for about a night, but the little buggers are still getting in and seem to be able to ooze around the tape! Every morning the kitchen carpet is covered in slug trails. We have used slug pellets outside, but can't use them inside as it would make a horrible mess on the carpet and they also smell when you kill them in this way. Have also tried salt and a glass of beer (for the slugs, not us) and both produce rather messy effects. Can anyone help or has anyone had a similar experience. It sounds quite funny, but it is actually really getting me down now and dh and I dream about them every night!

[jodee]

Ellaroo, it's absolutely gross, isn't it. We had this problem when we first moved into our house, there would be slug trails every morning across the carpet and I would occasionally find them still in the kitchen. Having to pick them up made my stomach heave. We only got it sorted when we changed the carpet - the existing carpet didn't have a decent underlay and the carpet itself wasn't fitted properly around the skirting boards. Once we did that it seemed to solve the problem, and we also tried to seal up any cracks in the kitchen with the seal that you would use around the edges of baths and sinks, and that did the trick too. Good luck - I used to dread coming downstairs in the mornings in case I trod on one, yuk!

[PamT]

We have a problem with slugs coming up from the cellar. They get through tiny holes where the pipes come up. Our only way of curing this has been to use either silicone sealant or the expanding foam that comes in an aerosol (be very careful with it though because it continues to expand for a long time before it eventually sets and can be a nightmare to get off again). Unfortunately with old houses there are so many cracks and crevices where they can get in and it can take a very long time to find them all.

[Ellaroo]

Thanks for your replies - I think this silicone water-resistant stuff may be our last hope. I told dh about it and he seemed very excited about it and is dispatching me to the shops this afternoon to go and buy some for him. We used to have wooden floor boards but they came up through the cracks so we laid the carpet to try and stop it but they just seem to come up elsewhere! I have just done some internet research on them - apparently they can stretch to TEN TIMES their own body length in order to squeeze through gaps! They can also have sex with themselves in order to breed!!! I can't believe slugs are having sex under my kitchen cupboards! Am not sure whether knowledge is power in this case....If you have any more ideas I will be eternally grateful - it is making me want to move house!

[bettys]

I've just bought some slug rings for the garden. They're made of copper - apparently slugs & snails won't cross copper as it electrocutes them. I'm not sure if there's a practical way this can be applied in the house but it might be worth checking the DIY shop to see if they sell copper strips. Apparently you can buy adhesive backed copper strips to put around plant pots - maybe it could be used inside cupboards etc

[JanZ]

Would Rentokil (or similar) be able to help? It sounds like you have a real problem - so maybe it is time to call in the professionals!

I oonce had a similar (but minor) problem when I lived in Bolton. Lots of slug pellets by the housewalls outside and a few slug pellets by the hole where I thought they were coming in on the inside solved the problem. However, "your" slugs seems to be more determined!

[Ellaroo]

Yes JanZ, I do seem to have a superior type of slug! Think I will also try the copper rings, i'm not normally a sadistic person, but I quite like the idea of electocuting them!!!

[Tortington]

salt just put loads of salt down and they will shrivel up and die of high blood pressure! no seriously tho - it works

[buttercup]

lots of recent articles in the press about how caffeine (strong coffee in spray thingy) kills them all stone dead! let me know if it works. our garden is overrun

[Ellaroo]

Buttercup, where can I get this caffeine spray??? It sounds wonderful! I was about to put a load of al-bran down (apparently they gorge on this, it bloats them out and then they literally dry up and explode!), but a caffeine spray would be a lot less messy.

[Lilia]

HI!!

I heard about caffeine spray. It's just very strong coffee. I had loads of slugs in my garden and killed them with slug pellets.

[Lilia]

Also heard that slugs hate (or die of) coffee granules. My mum-in-law suggested to put a layer of fine gravel in the garden as they don't like gravely surface.

[Rhubarb]

You can get environmentally friendly slug pellets now if you don't want to kill off all your garden birds and hedgehogs. But if they are coming into your house then I would advise as Custardo says and put salt around the bottom of your door and the edge of the skirting board. For a long term solution do as someone else has suggested and go around the bottom of your skirting boards with silicone. You can put draught excluders on the bottom of your doors to keep them out too.

But salt never fails, just don't put it in your garden or it will kill your plants.

[jasper]

Beer traps.
For in the house, get some plastic pet food dishes of the type with gently sloping sides so the slugs can crawl in.
Fill them with beer. Slug creeps in, drinks beer and dies and everyone including slug is happy.
Just brace yourself for the sight of a dish of dead drunk slugs in the morning- you can trap dozens in one night, it is quite a sight to behold.
Same trick can be used outside, with old marg tubs or similar submerged in the soil.

[mears]

What about changing your flooring to tiles, linoleum or laminate flooring to get rid of the gaps and points of entry?

[bea]

oh dear! this all sounds very familiar!

we recently moved so alas have this problem no more but we used to have the pet house slug as we called them, we solved the problem for a while when we had new carpet laid... before they laid the carpet, dh broke some of the floorboards and craled uder dispensing pellets here there and evrywhere, they dissapered for a month or two but then we gor a new batch, this all coincded with dd being born and feeds in the middle of the nu=ight! (ah remmeber those long forgotten days anyone!? so, when i got up, dh would go on slug patrol and would catch them in the middle of the night, pour salt on them and then chuck them out! (NO MERCY!), eventually we wittled them down again, (they seem to be repeat offenders!), it's just continuous vigilance!!! and they do seem to sense when you've dissapered for the night!... hate to reccomend it! but i would set up a slug patrol!

good luck anyway...

from a woman who was not that bothered to come down in the morning and find slug trails all over slippers... but had a friend who nearly fainted when picking up her jacket and bag, left on the floor overnight to be greeted by a lovely silvery new design!

[Azzie]

I once pulled on a pair of jeans that had been hanging up to dry in the kitchen of my flat and my bare toes found a large slug ensconsed in one leg. But that was a particularly squalid flat - we slept with a line of salt across the entrance to the bedroom so that no slugs could get in, and we used to leave the light on in the kitchen when we went out for the evening, otherwise when we came back there would be enormous gray slugs feasting on the top of the (admittedly not ultra-clean) cooker.

In another flat we had an albino slug who used to come into the shower from the back yard (the shower drained through a hole in the back wall...).

And finally, not slugs but still pretty revolting: I came down to make the morning tea last Saturday to find that something had been breeding in my compost scrap bin and the work surface in the kitchen was crawling with maggots. It would happen when I had my Mum and stepdad staying for the weekend

[buttercup]

Ellaroo - sorry its taken so long to reply. You just make some strong coffee and put it in one of those plant sprays

[jodee]

Azzie!! please do not mention the mxxxxx word again, I can't get the thought of them out of my head!

[Tinker]

I get slugs in my bathroom now - just pick them up with tissue and flush them down the toilet. But always have visions of them not quite going down and re-emerging! Have stood in them in my bare feet as well!!!! Caught one, in the middle of the night, with its mouth open round a grape that had fallen on the floor. Was transfixed watching it eat it - then killed it!

[sis]

Tinker, grapes in the bathroom?! were you planning some wonderful Roman style feast with peeled grapes?

[Rhubarb]

My dd likes picking them up and putting them in her truck, but unfortunately she is not the most gentle of children so you can imagine what state they are in once she's finished with them! Same with worms too. But I do hate slugs and snails! The sound and feeling of stepping on a snail is awful - we used to go snail hopping at our last address, if we went anywhere at night, especially on a wet night, we would have to hop around all the snails that were simply EVERYWHERE! A real infestion! You could see other people on the street doing exactly the same!

My dh now informs me that you can use ordinary slug pellets in the garden if you put them under an upturned pot, so no other animals can get at them. You could always try this in your kitchen!

[sylvev]

Yep! We live in a victorian house and every morning we come down to find a mass of silvery trails over the carpet, furniture and anything else below ceiling level in the front room. They are able to flatten themselves paper-thin to squeeze through the most narrow slots or gaps. I know this because, in my more active days I spent much time on my stomach doing exercises in this room and on several occasions came face to er.. face with slugs entering via the skirting boards! We have found little to deter them, apart from trying to make sure all gaps are sealed. The bs have also eaten my lupins, delphiniums, vegetable plants etc.
I sympathise, but, unfortunately have no solutions!

[Tinker]

Sis - sadly no. The grape was an old one that had been left on the kitchen floor for the usual 4 weeks or so! Just had ants running round my feet in the bathroom now. And all this sudden rain has caused all the wallpaper to start peeling off in my daughter's room! It's a laugh not!