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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

How do I stop slugs coming in my house?

47 replies

Pumpkinz · 31/08/2024 22:54

So fed up of standing on slugs! There's no food source, my house isn't damp, I have no idea how they get in at night. How do I get rid of them?! They've multiplied like crazy this year.

OP posts:
JumpstartMondays · 31/08/2024 22:56

You sure there's no damp? Slugs like damp.

Fleetheart · 31/08/2024 22:56

those bastards! you will need to get a builder or damp course expert to have a look I think. We did this and it all got sorted. I hate those slimey fiends.

LilianaVikavanovich · 31/08/2024 22:57

The only way ( it’s not good ) it’s to put salt beside each doorway / entrance
Better than treading on the slimy gits with a bare foot 🤢

StarDolphins · 31/08/2024 22:57

Oh god, this reminds me of when I moved into my current house. Day 3, I woke up to slug trails & 2 slugs in the lounge!😩 awful

Find out where they’re coming from & fix it. Mine were coming through a slither in the door. No more came once this was fixed.I feel for you, I hated it.

Morwenscapacioussleeves · 31/08/2024 22:58

Salt

They manage to squeeze through our backdoor despite the fact it has seals/is bloody wind tight! So I put salt in the bottom trough/gap/part of door frame & don't stand on them in my bare feet anymore 🥳

Pumpkinz · 31/08/2024 22:58

JumpstartMondays · 31/08/2024 22:56

You sure there's no damp? Slugs like damp.

Fairly certain. I do have a huge number of plants growing just outside the door of the room I find them in but no idea how they get in. I usually just see their trails in the morning!

OP posts:
Pumpkinz · 31/08/2024 22:59

Fleetheart · 31/08/2024 22:56

those bastards! you will need to get a builder or damp course expert to have a look I think. We did this and it all got sorted. I hate those slimey fiends.

Edited

My landlord would be very unlikely to agree to this sadly unless I have other issues.

OP posts:
Oneblindmouse · 31/08/2024 22:59

They can get in under uPVC doors. In my last house I saw them doing it if I went downstairs during the night. They also got under the skirting boards from under the floors. We put silicone sealer under the skirting boards but couldn't stop them coming under the external doors.

ShinyWellies · 31/08/2024 23:03

Put a shallow tub full of beer on the ground outside your problem area in the evening and leave overnight. Repeat for a few nights.

Not the nicest method but unfortunately it is the most effective.

Pumpkinz · 31/08/2024 23:06

ShinyWellies · 31/08/2024 23:03

Put a shallow tub full of beer on the ground outside your problem area in the evening and leave overnight. Repeat for a few nights.

Not the nicest method but unfortunately it is the most effective.

I'm so far beyond being nice at this stage. I want to scream every time I stand on one.

OP posts:
BabaYetu · 31/08/2024 23:07

Ours climbed up the outside the gas pipe to the fire in the dining room and the waste water pipe under the kitchen sink.

The house is 100 years old and under the floor boards is 8 inches of space then dirt. a circle of salt around each hole where the pipe comes up kills them, but I have to do it regularly.

babyturtle19 · 31/08/2024 23:16

Leaving the light on helps - they like to come out in the dark

MyKidsAreTooNoisy · 31/08/2024 23:19

We had them coming in via an air-brick then through the floorboards. Mesh over the air brick stopped them.

Merryoldgoat · 31/08/2024 23:19

Mine got in through an airbrick

We put mesh over it and that stopped them.

They’re absolutely disgusting

Pudmyboy · 31/08/2024 23:21

Another vote for salt: I put a thin line along the kerb of the back door (their main route in): works a treat, as long as it is not somewhere where it would get washed away by rain

RaspberryBeretxx · 31/08/2024 23:25

They can squeeze through the tiniest gap, one got into my toddlers whistle through the mouthpiece 😱. It was a clear whistle for bath time so I could see it in there. Copper tape is meant to help. I’ve always just put up with it but am contemplating the shallow tub of beer… I tried salt but it just left a horrible mess to clean up and felt quite a terrible death to inflict 😕.

DrinkElephants · 31/08/2024 23:28

We had them in our old house. Each morning I hovered up slug trails. The only way they went was to get a new carpet with good underlay. I think they must’ve been getting in under the floorboards and put carpet was a bit rubbish.

BabaYetu · 31/08/2024 23:36

I don't care how revolting a death it is - if they stuck to their habitat while I stick to mine it wouldn't come to this.

But no, the oozy one-footed bastards want to colonise the kitchen and They Shall Not Pass, no matter how many tubs of table salt to takes.

SharedFailure · 31/08/2024 23:37

EcoWidow Natural Slug and Snail Repellent Killer Spray - 500M
This actually works!! It has completely solved our slug problem. Sprayed it liberally around door frame and cat flap everyday for a week and haven’t seen one since. It doesn’t smell too bad either. I top up by spraying every month

Bluebella27 · 31/08/2024 23:44

Have had the same issue! My whole body shivers in disgust every time I've stepped barefoot onto one!! We got some copper tape on Amazon (look it up for info) and that worked for a bit but also bout little slug traps from I think home base.

TooBigForMyBoots · 01/09/2024 00:13

I'd a similar problem. Salt worked. Every evening I'd draw my line in the salt. Every morning I'd throw a bucket of water over the debris.

Some say it's cruel, I disagree. Only the really stupid slugs, who wanted to invade my house, died.

DeathpunchDan · 01/09/2024 00:23

Mine lived under the floor and ate their way through damp skirting boards. My landlord refused to deal with the damp problem but beer traps worked best of all. I used to have dozens of them slithering all over the kitchen floor. Disgusting things.

MargaretThursday · 01/09/2024 00:56

I have a pot of plants by my front door that I'm sure someone has put up a sign saying "slugs, this way please." I can't think of any other explanation that has the slugs homing in on it from all over the garden.

If anyone has tried the copper tape that is meant to miraculously stop them, don't bother. it does look quite pretty, but I think they only stop to admire their reflections in it.
I've resorted to slug pellets.

angelcake20 · 01/09/2024 00:58

Three out of the four houses we've had with a ground floor have had slugs. One we solved with salt but the others have been resistant. I'm just glad the the current ones never make it far from the back door; in our last house the bathroom was at the back of the ground floor so you couldn't go to the loo in the night without risking squashing one and the breastfeeding years were horrible!

MaMisled · 01/09/2024 01:09

I'm an avid camper and slugs are nor welcome round my campfire.

They hate wool because they can't slither across it, it absorbs their slimey moving mucous I think.

I go round x round our pitch area with a £2.50 ball if wool, laying a 'ring of steel' 4 or 5 strands wide.

Humane and effective.