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AIBU?

To think it's not normal to have slugs in the kitchen and I'm not making a fuss about nothing?

76 replies

lecce · 20/04/2013 21:28

Came down this morning to see a fairly big one on the kitchen floor . Surely no one wants to see this, right? I have a phobia of them anyway. I avoid saying the word (it made me cringe to type it just now and I can't look at it now I have.) I avoid walking past them if I can and cannot imagine ever touching one.

Our last house (we moved 2 months ago) had them coming into the kitchen . I thought it was because it was Victorian, rather than modern. It was the one and only thing I hated about the house and used to make me scream each time it happened (every now and then).

Dh has always been unsympathetic . He knows about my phobia and the first time one came into our last house I absolutely screamed the house down. It was my worst nightmare - one of those things in my home. I had never had it happen before and was totally unprepared. Dh came running downstairs but, when he saw the problem, was dismissive. That is how he has always been. He will get rid of it but always makes a comment (snappy or sarcastic, depending on his mood). If one came in while he was out, I would have to pour a heap of salt on it and then leave it. That would also provoke a comment 9 times out of 10.

This morning, when I saw that this is happening in this house too, I got very upset and tearful. Dh said sarcastically in a fake teary voice, "Oh, I wish we hadn't moved here, it's ruined. Oh no!" Then told me I needed to forget about it.

AIBU to be upset that they get in and to be even more upset with dh's reaction?

OP posts:

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Mumsyblouse · 20/04/2013 22:48

Your husband is really horrible, it's not a big deal to help a person with a phobia, my husband has to help me with mine which involves taking time off work and sitting with a screaming person for hours on end and he's always done it. I even once went to some student girls house because they were scared of spiders and knocked on the door having hysterics - I went round and caught it for them (it was huge!) He's horrible and I would be having words with him about it.

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MadBusLady · 20/04/2013 22:48

Your DH is being a knob.

When you're sealing up gaps, don't forget to check around the pipes for w/machine and d/washer - that's how they were getting in in our last place.

Bit puzzled by the posts telling you to deal with your phobia and stop making people "work around". It's hardly interfering with daily life to get someone else to dispose of a slug.

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mum23girlys · 20/04/2013 23:38

Can sympathise re slugs. Sold and moved 8 months ago. I thought 'haha have our slugs' only to discover even bigger ones two weeks later in our new kitchen. They are vile. However I know where the are coming in and have pelleted them to bits :-) Not seen one in months. My dh leaves them to me but I hate disposing of them. Boak they basically puke up then slide along on their spew

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mum23girlys · 20/04/2013 23:40

Ps - Ours come in through the under floor ventilation

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Maryz · 20/04/2013 23:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CointreauVersial · 21/04/2013 00:00

I pick them up in a tissue and flush them down the loo (cruel).

I used to live in a student house with a slug-infested basement kitchen. We sprinkled slug pellets around just before we went home for Christmas, and we came back to about 30 dead bodies, urgh.

I saw one in Italy a couple of years ago that was about 8 inches long. We all gathered round and took photos.

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RiffyWammal · 21/04/2013 00:12

We have them all the time in our kitchen too. I guarantee if I go in there after dark when the light's been off there will be several on the floor, feasting on bits of cereal etc that have been dropped. I don't particularly like them but I don't mind them too much either. Sometimes I feel generous and give one a cornflake - if you bend down you can actually HEAR them munching!

Anyone who has a slug phobia definitely doesn't want to walk in on them mating as I did once. I'm not squeamish about them at all and it freaked me right out - it's like something from a science fiction film! They are hermaphrodites, so both have a penis which comes out of their heads and is about as long as the slug itself. They then entwine their penises and writhe around in ecstacy. Here have a look.

Oh and please don't use slug pellets, folks. The poisoned slugs get eaten by birds and hedgehogs which also get poisoned and die.

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GreenPeppercorn · 21/04/2013 00:14

I'm sorry I had tuned out until the part about a PENIS COMING OUT OF THEIR HEAD.

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GreenPeppercorn · 21/04/2013 00:15

I think my exh has one of those. (it's not very big though)

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GreenPeppercorn · 21/04/2013 00:17

oh fantastic, there is a link to the slugs from the movie "flushed away" and the cheeky one with its tongue out has just caused much spluttering of gin mineral water over the keyboard.

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Maryz · 21/04/2013 00:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CointreauVersial · 21/04/2013 13:10

Well, it is fairly damp where you live, Maryz.

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LittleYellowBall · 21/04/2013 13:15

Pellets

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AlbertaCampion · 21/04/2013 13:15

NO it isn't normal! Our garden is plagued with them and always has been, but I have never one inside the house. I'd respond like you, OP, if I did.

I don't think it's your DH's sole responsibility to sort them out - but he should certainly help!

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Flappingandflying · 21/04/2013 16:36

Me too. We get them in the kitchen and the living room. Yuck yuck yuck. I brush them onto the dustpan and chuck them outside. Worse when it rains.

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Cuteypie · 01/09/2013 12:35

slug always coming into the house spoiling the carpets spray them with BOP INSECTICIDE, silly little creatures melt. But of course they leave a disguising blob of orange stuff.

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5madthings · 01/09/2013 12:57

oh we get loads of slugs. revolting things, some are huge and have a leopard print type pattern. anyway they are gone by morning so.i leave them.be or if i can be arsed scoop them up with dustpan and brush and put them outside. i have occasionaly salted them. very mean but when i came down heavily pregnant and stood on the fuckers in bare feet and turned the light on to see fifty odd of the slimy things i lost it!

have to say over the summer we had a resident toad in the garden and no slugs... toads eat them apparently. toady has left :( and the slugs are back. they come up through the floorboards.

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GrendelsMum · 01/09/2013 13:14

Just from the point of view of your DH - although I do agree he's being an arse by being sarcastic - it's really unnerving when your partner screams in terror and runs from the room. My DH has a phobia of butterflies, and one got into the sitting room the other day. His reaction had my heart hammering and adrenaline all through my body, looking for something really appalling (mad axeman in garden, etc), and the comedown to seeing its a small butterfly which I need to catch and remove is quite hard.

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Runningchick123 · 01/09/2013 13:36

I had them in our old house and used to do the salt thing. Sorry to those who think the salt method is cruel, but its a slug, which is a pest and shouldn't be in the house. I ended up putting a thick line of salt around the whole of the house.
Salt is better than slug pellets because it kills them almost instantly and doesn't harm birds and hedgehogs.

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Mimishimi · 01/09/2013 13:45

We used to get slugs in a 1920's Art Dco apartment that we rented. They came out in hordes at nighttime but usually only followed the same routes each time. Sprinkling salt over their trails helped quite a bit.

I have a phobia of moths which probably seems ridiculous to the casual observer . However, my parents home is situated in a mountainous region which tens of thousands of large moths used to migrate to for a few weeks each year to fatten up before moving to even colder regions for breeding. I would quite literally tape up all cracks and crevices and retire early to bed (so no need for light which attracted tem) to hide under my quilt. The sound of a moth hitting the walls can send me into hysterics.

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raisah · 01/09/2013 14:03

We used to get slugs all the time until we got our double glazing & front doors replaced. The double glazing guy said they got in through the gaps in the front door. Seal all possible gaps in the doors and wooden floors (if you have any).

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slightlysoupstained · 01/09/2013 14:14

I have had to skim read a lot of posts as they were making me feel ill.

Slug pellets - I used to use these www.harrodhorticultural.com/advanced-slug-killer-pellets-pid7766.html which claim to be child and pet safe?

This year am trying a subscription of Nemaslug: www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/ss-nemaslug.html

I haven't seen a slug in the house for months and months, but I don't know if that's because of the Nemaslug or because it's been so hot and dry. Either way, I'm hoping it will have knocked back the truly MASSIVE slug population in the garden enough that none of the slimy feckers are left to get in to my kitchen this winter.

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propertyNIGHTmareBEFOREXMAS · 01/09/2013 15:06

They are slimy little fuckers and they carry lungworms. Luckily the two types of lungworms found in UK slugs are not transmitted to humans (however they can harm dogs). In Asia and Australia though slugs can carry Rat Lungworms which can cause menengitis in humans. As I said, they are slimy fuckers and your husband is being unreasonable to mock instead of helping you to get rid of them.

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Icedink · 01/09/2013 17:00

Zombie thread!

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Bubbles1066 · 01/09/2013 17:12

We get them in our kitchen. They squash themselves flat and get in through the tiniest gaps. Tape around the door to block gaps helps but I'm a right bunny hugger and would never hurt them so wouldn't use salt. I have just learned to live with them. I pick them up with cardboard, you can just slide it under them and put them outside. It's only for a few months in the summer then they go. I think their little eyes are quite cute really. They can't help being slugs. Try and make peace with them if you can OP.

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