Where are all the slugs?

[ParrotsAteThemAll]

Just been out to my garden on my nightly hedgehog hunt and realised that I’ve not seen a slug in a very long time. I used to have an array of slugs, regular black ones and those big orange ones almost the size of a bar of soap (?spanish slugs).

Has the heatwave shrivelled them all up? Is this a worry for our eco system? What will the hedgehogs eat??

They are all in hiding, waiting for conditions to get better. I found some this afternoon - a plant in a pot on the patio was feeling rather light, so I dunked it in a bucket full of water. 5 minutes later, and several slugs appeared at the surface.

They are all in my garden. Swear the buggers have tripled in numbers this week.

In Scotland so heats not been a thing here.

Slugs cause lungworm in hedgehogs

My dog rolled on one as he was doing his last pee before bed I had to pick it off him !
Has been raining here it isn't hot, i imagine the slugs in England and Wales are waiting on better weather to come out.

They are in my kitchen, sliming their way up onto the counters <boak>. Every bloody night.

Having said that, they are all the greenish ones, we used to have those massive black ones in the front garden but I haven't seen any of them in years. Never seen an orange one.

Eating my Dalias. Every single slug in the uk think.

That is horrific put them outside!

Not seen many here either. They do seem a lot more prevalent when it's damp.

Not seen many wasps actually either. Not as many as the last few years. Or as many ladybirds. Fewer thunderstorms too. Considering the extreme heat. Maybe it needs to be damper to create more thunderstorms...

If they eat them? I didn’t know this.

Ugh who cares?

I have plenty of them eating my carrot tops. But agreed not as many as usual.

@ParrotsAteThemAll yes 😢

They’re usually doing the same to mine, but thankfully not this summer. Sorry the buggers are at yours.

How have you got slugs in your kitchen ? Or do you mean a garden kitchen ?

We get slugs in the home too, it's bloody annoying but apparently just something that happens in our type of house. I just relocate them to the garden if they're slow enough to be there in the morning. I do have to check the floor with a phone light if I crash on the sofa though - once push my foot down and squish 🤢

Some I see are like green camo print

I certainly don’t miss them, but I also wouldn’t miss spiders but they all serve a purpose in our eco system (I’m yet to find out what slugs bring).

They bring nothing.

I like snails but slugs are horrible.

Have you tried putting salt along the threshold - doors and windows?

It sounds like a "ward" from some kind of young adult fantasy novel, but we used to get slugs in our student house decades ago, and salt helped reduce the numbers significantly because it just dehydrated them.

It shrivelled a few of them up trying to get in, and just detered most on contact without leaving more than one or two actually dead every so often.

I think hedgehogs eat beetles...

There seem to have been fewer of most kinds of insects this year than last though.

They come up through the floor, we've had a whole new floor downstairs layed and carpets/laminate done but we have a cavity floor with natural ground underneath. We're by a river and in a flood zone so naturally damp. It's just one of those things. Nature's gonna nature.

There are a bazillion here in my garden eating my flowers and veggies and even saw them in a mating ball 🤢 this am.
researching how to help hedgehog numbers !

oh blimey - no foundations?

We get slugs in the kitchen too. This won't make me popular, but I kill them - as apparently they have some kind of pathfinding instinct (I know that's not the technical term!), so if you just put them outside they will sooner or later return.
Having said that, the ones I've seen recently are pretty small. Not like the giant ones we had over the last wet winter and spring.

I think badgers eat slugs, but I may have got that wrong.

Hiding, all shrivelled, because theres no rain.
Not a scientific answer 😄