Anyone else terrified of slugs?

[Slugwimp]

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a fear of slugs. I think it may tip into the realm of a phobia, as I’m so averse to them. The sight of one makes my skin crawl, and I feel a bit sick.

Last night, I got up around 2am to go to the loo (it’s downstairs). There was a small slug on the tiled wall. I wanted to cry. I told my DP, who got up and flicked it out of the window. It took me ages to get back to sleep. When I did finally get back to sleep, I dreamed that a whole family of them were in my bathroom, big ones! And that they wouldn’t die when I put salt on them lol. I asked DP to inspect the bath/shower before I would go in this morning. Never scrubbed myself down so quick in my life.

Now, I’ve heard about slugs being a nuisance in people’s houses. That they have a good memory, and will keep coming back even when put outside. I’m absolutely terrified that this one will come back. Or worse, there’s more lurking in there somewhere...

I’m so scared. I hate them SO much. I keep getting a lump in my throat when I think about that one on the wall. But I know it’s totally irrational. How can I overcome this fear?

YES! Sometimes I get up and can see their trails on the floor by the front door (no obvious place that they could be getting in though) but thank God I've never actually seen one inside. No idea on how to overcome it though, so placemarking for myself too!

@BearSoFair

Oh, I’m so glad you understand! Not glad that you’re scared, mind - I know how it feels!

I’d actually forgotten about my fear up until seeing that one - I thought I was safe in this house! That’s the trouble though, not being able to see how they slither themselves in... shudder

I'm not scared of them but they repulse me. I actually feel physically sick when I see one, come close to actually throwing up a few times

Oh, and that's outside. I've never seen one indoors
If I saw one indoors there would be definite puke

Me too, and they have been coming under our back door !!small ones.Ds will now chuck them out

Yes! I always say I would rather have a hundred spiders on my body than one slug. I get shivers looking at them they are disgusting

There was a massive slug in my hall one night and I actually went out into the garden to see if there was anyone around that could come in and remove it for me. Luckily there wasn't! Stranger from the street in the house rather than a slug in the house sounded like the better option at the time .

I always sleep with a can of juice by my bed and wake up during the night for a drink. Every night as I take a sip I have this horrible thought that a slug has climbed in and I'm going to drink it .

I don’t touch them. I always think of that poor boy who suffered brain damage from eating a slug.

Hate them. Love snails
When I lived in the country they would come through the overflow pipe in the kitchen sink, it was pretty gross.
However I would never salt one

Sounds like it’s quite common to feel repulsed by them! They’re hideous things. I’m safe from them when I’m upstairs, right...?

Also agree with the poster about preferring spiders! Would rather have a big one in the bath than see a slug in it. Eurgh. Spiders don’t leave me feeling unsettled afterwards like that slug did.

Yes. Total bastards. I'm very surprised they were out in jan though (sorry, assuming you're in the UK). Must be the mild weather.

I became quite fond of the huge fat brown ones in my garden last summer though, they came out to feed on any bread I threw out like mice or little birds. They were so big even the blackbirds wouldnt try to eat them!

@Sux2buthen I was going to ask if anyone else likes snails...it's weird, I know that underneath the shell there's another slug type creature but I like them! DH tells me to just think of slugs as homeless snails but it doesn't make me any less creeped out by them

I'm not scared but they are gross. Especially when you see a bunch of huge Spanish ones surrounding and nomming on a dog shit < not envy

@Feelingabitashamed

I thought that too, about it being there in January. We moved into this house last summer, and never saw a slug in there then. Mind, the bathroom has been a nightmare for damp since the cold weather set in.

The brown ones aren’t quite as horrible as the big black ones, are they? Don’t get me wrong, I still hate them all! I can’t stand the way they move, their little antennas twitching, and that frilly thing around their bodies...

Standing on one with bare feet is the worst!

yes ! (and leeches). Though i am fine with snails (they have a handy handle to pick them up by ).

I have an arrangement with my OH. He removes any slugs from the house.... i remove the spiders.

its the big luminous yellow ones ... bleurgh ..... i am feeling nauseous just thinking about them.

Yes I agree they are terrifying. I don’t mind most spiders and things but slugs... ugh.

There was a full-size one on the floor of our downstairs loo one night. DH was out and I had to just get one of the DC’s beach buckets and put it over the slug. That was the most I could cope with. I also put a note saying “slug” on the bucket so that DH wouldn’t come in half-pissed and kick the bucket over and accidentally let it free.

I don’t feel massive repulsion to them when they’re outside but when they’re inside < not envy

I’m not scared of them, but they make me shudder with disgust. Sometimes my dog brings them inside stuck to her fur, I have to get a handful of kitchen roll and use it a a barrier between me and the slug to get them off her .

I absolutely hate them, we had to move into my DH late grans house for a few months whilst our new house was finished being built, I came down one morning to find slug trails all over my new sofa, I completely freaked out at the thought that there were slugs crawling all over my furniture, never actually found them but was a regular occurrence. I moved out fairly quickly back to my mum’s until our house was finished! In my defence I was pregnant at the time and suffering with severe morning sickness, that was over 20 years ago but I still hate slugs😂

I HATE slugs, but for a different reason. I used to smoke spliffs when I was young and in the summer if I had one at night in the garden but didn’t finish it, I used to put them safely behind a wall so I could finish it the next day. But half the time they had been destroyed (like they had been chewed into) and left with slime over them. I don’t know whether they thought it was a fellow slug and tried to mate with it or what, but I’ve had a personal vendetta ever since

I'm the same. When I was a student, one got into my flat. My then boyfriend removed it using a bowl to flick it outside. I made him throw away the bowl!

I can't stand on one, even in shoes, the idea makes me ill.

Very little else makes me feel this way, but slugs, I just can't cope with.

Rugbylife in old, cold houses where there’s a gap between the floorboards and the foundations they can live under the floorboards and come out at night.

I don't mind the black ones, but I hate any other kind... those stripy ones with the orange frilly bits

Ds used to love them. As a toddler he used to collect them in the garden and put them all together. He usually kissed them as he put them down too.

Don't dream about it.

They are absolutely fucking disgusting. In my old house there were loads. I walked down to the shower which was behind the kitchen, it was quite dark and all of a sudden I felt this massive squelch and very loud/squeaking and deflating noise (boak). I was barefoot and had stepped on one. Honestly worst experience ever (ok not quite!!) but so so gross.

@Rugbylife they are so sneaky and can get through the tiniest of gaps. I’ve watched one squeeze itself through a gap so tiny you wouldn’t think it possible. Seal up everything! Don’t let them in!