SLUGS

[wintertimeisfun]

last few weeks come downstairs to see one or lots of slug trails in the front room & always in the same spot. dh and i have turned the room upside down but can't find the critters. i have found three, by chance and not at the same time, slithering up the wall (i hate put them outside with a spoon). i have bought this slug catcher thing that you put beer in but the thought of drowning them and having to empty the bastard makes me feel sick so have not done it. Someone else suggested putting half a grapefruit in the front room. we have a cat so i don't want to put down any poisons plus poisons would really hurt them...i would prefer them to die drunk & happy :0) anyone else had this problem

[wintertimeisfun]

i won't go down the salt path, sounds to painful and rotten. i will however try the beer thing. we have floorboards in the room they appear in so i can't stop them coming in if they are indeed coming up from underneath, weird how it has only just started, i don't think there is damp in that room, doesn't feel or smell damp. dh thinks one came in (we have the doors open in the summer) and laid some eggs.....i will put some stuff outside by the air vents, can't put any inside as a cat. we even looked up the chimney incase they were coming in/hiding in there

[Bubbles1066]

Tape up or reseal any gaps under cupboards, doors etc that really helps. I would personally rather live in happy harmony with the slugs than kill then with salt. That's a horrible, horrible thing to do to a sentient animal. Maybe the slugs don't like the look of you either.

[cozietoesie]

Extremely brave.

Just treat it like an all out campaign. In my experience, once you have the outside under control, the inside will take care of itself - although you may want to take interim measures if you have a really bad infestation. It is doable.

Unfortunately, slug control season is pretty well over in most places, I think. With the cold weather they'll have gone deep into damp, warm, festering places so many of you will have to wait until next spring for serious action.

[plentyofsoap]

Tall- you are brave. That is all

[tallwivglasses]

Nasty little fuckers. Someone mentioned coffee granules to me. I haven't tried it yet because I don't want to use my naice coffee, but will have a go tomorrow and report back.

I have an autistic son that will put anything in his mouth. If there's one thing worse than standing on a slug it's trying to hook one out of a boy's mouth while he's trying to chew on it. They don't mention that in the parenting books...

Sorry for the sn trump, couldn't resist ;)

[TotesAmazeGoats]

My Mum had a massive issue with them in her kitchen, they get in under the units.

The tipping point for her was when one got in the toaster... But she didn't realise.

She has since bought a new toaster and had kitchen units re-sealed.

[SoftKittyWarmKitty]

Thanks Chocs, it could be the best £8 I've ever spent!

[alabasterangel]

Have you got an open fire? We had a huge issue with this, only to realise they were coming in on logs we were putting in the log basket, then slithering off.

Every night before bed, I got a flat sheet of cardboard wrapped in cling film (face of a cereal pack or similar) and put a few slug pellets on it and left it where i saw the trails. The next morning the repugnant creature would be on the board, having met its maker.

The one time that didn't work I happened to come downstairs at 2am (thirsty!!) and there was the slimy fucker right in the middle of the floor. Dustpan and brush, flung into wheely bin.

Yuk yuk yuk.

[MrsWedgeAntilles]

Yes that's the fucker, that made me boak a wee bit.

[cozietoesie]

\link{http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24593015\Look similar} MrsWedge ?

[MrsWedgeAntilles]

Maybe your slugs were doing Sober for October and mine were pissheads

[ChocsAndBedsocks]

Softkitty - I've never done a link before but I'll give it a go...

Slug spray

As I said, I tried tape too, but it is a pain when you can't be sure where they are coming from. With the spray, I just went round the bottom of the skirting board with it on the side of the room where the trails were and that has done the trick. It is a bit sticky until it dries so I use it last thing at night.

[TunipTheUnconquerable]

Yes, I had the neck flush with the ground.

[MrsWedgeAntilles]

I think we used Red Stripe. The secret is to have the neck flush with the ground so they fall in.

[maddening]

They seem to have specific paths that they follow - when I visited my friends house we used to smoke outside the back door and there was a path they took - always the same and alway multiple slugs

[TunipTheUnconquerable]

I have tried beer traps and not caught a single one.
Maybe we were using the wrong beer. It was extra strong Belgian beer dh was given by a student and we knew we weren't ever going to drink. Maybe normal cheap bitter is better?

[MrsWedgeAntilles]

Also for the love of God do not put salt on them, they writhe and rear up like they are screaming, its absolutely hideous

[MrsWedgeAntilles]

We had the same problem and I hate slugs, I can't even walk the same road they are on. This is what we did:
Don't put the beer in the house, Cozietoes is right, the beer draws them in. Go out side and see if you can work out where they're coming in. Get some jam jars or similar and fill them 1/3 full of beer and bury them up to their necks in the earth. The slugs fall in and drown. I couldn't empty them and I couldn't look at the drowned corpses so I filled the jars up with earth and then dug them up and threw them in the bin.
In the week we did it MrWedge says he saw about 100 in the jars he threw out and we had no more slugs in the house.
I'm not sure if ours were foreign or not but they had a big orange frill round the bottom.

[SoftKittyWarmKitty]

The repellant spray sounds good. Do you have a link Chocs?

[hallowisitmeyourelookingfor]

Can they really flatten themselves to fit through tiny gaps? I am clearly a slug dunce and have been living in ignorance

[cozietoesie]

Oh my!

[doyouwantfrieswiththat]

foreign slugs you say..I'm off to phone the DM this is an outrage!

[cozietoesie]

Oh - and repeat regularly.