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Housekeeping

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Original poster

This is bad and minging and terrible - there are SLUGS in my kitchen!!!

47 replies

bohemianbint · 19/05/2008 19:01

I want to die just thinking about it. They come in at night and walk on everything. I think when we had the kitchen redone there's a gap in the flooring around the cupboards, so they might be getting in that way - but they also get into the utility room and there's no gaps there, I don't think. Unless they just get in through the cat flap.

Anyway, whatever, point is I fecking hate the disgusting things and I can't bear them walking all over the place at night. How on earth do you get rid of them? Pest control? Can't really do pellets as cats and kids all over the place. I need them gone though before I freak out, please help!

OP posts:
Enid · 19/05/2008 19:02

we have them too

I just live with them tbh

maidamess · 19/05/2008 19:02

We used to have a terribol problem with slugs. I poured salt around everywhere I thought they were coming in. I figured it wouldn't really hurt anyone else coming into contact with it. filling up gaps is the only answer really.

geordieminx · 19/05/2008 19:03

I have exactly the same problem - even noticed trails on the ceiling - no ideas either - but am watching with interest!!!

I once heard that they dont like vasaline but unless you know where they are coming in then its a bit usless - unless you cover the whole house in it

MrsCarrot · 19/05/2008 19:04

you get used to them, start rubbing the trails off your slippers with your foot before you put it on etc

now standing on one in the night in bare feet is nasty

Enid · 19/05/2008 19:04

yy I have done that in the night

I did put salt around where they were coming in but clearning up the mess is pretty grim!

Cappuccino · 19/05/2008 19:06

a woman at work was talking to me about copper tape her boyfriend had got

you put it down places and it shocks them and they go in the other direction

I keep wondering about it

Enid · 19/05/2008 19:08

now that sounds like fun

Cappuccino · 19/05/2008 19:09

hmm

I am unsure of your idea of 'fun'

Original poster
bohemianbint · 19/05/2008 19:10

I think the worst thing is that if we've been a bit slack and left a plate by the sink or sommat they walk all over that, and a few times they've walked on DS's high chair tray, which really makes me want to spew.

Hadn't thought of the salt idea - but do you then end up scraping up lightly salted slugs in the morning?

OP posts:
MrsCarrot · 19/05/2008 19:14

ew at salted slugs

I rarely saw them tbh, usually just had trails on the carpets and shoes in the morning. If I did see one I would fling it into the garden with a bit of paper to dh's amusement, he reckoned it would slither straight back.

belcantavinissima · 19/05/2008 19:34

ewww i feel your pain we have them too. it makes me feel a bit you know dirty (but not in a goodway lol!). we have no foundations in our v old cottage and they come up between the floorboards. much worse in the winter i guess because its damper then. but this yr it seems bad in spring summer too. it gets me down actually. it would be my main reason for moving house tbh!

2GIRLS · 19/05/2008 21:11

Don't slugs move slowly like snails? Never actually seen one move I don't think.

Plug the gap in the kitchen, it's the only way of stopping them coming in.

So, tonight put salt all around the gap in the kitchen and hopefully they won't get in that way. Also put the plugs in the sink (have no idea if they come up that way but I would definitely do it if I had slugs).
Maybe they're going from the kitchen into the utility room?

And get the people back who did your kitchen and make them sort out the gap.

Original poster
bohemianbint · 19/05/2008 21:11

belcantavinissima - totally with you on the dirty and the moving hosue thing...But can't see how we'll sell with the little bleeders all over the place!

We never saw any before the kitchen was done. It just really annoys me having to be quite so scrupulous and having to clean all the floors and surfaces every day, I'm all for slacking on the housework front but can't on those things!

OP posts:
maidamess · 19/05/2008 21:13

They won't try and slither over the salt..they should recoil and start to dissolve before they get that far! They used to leave trails all over our shoes..yuck.

PeaGreene · 19/05/2008 21:15

Did you have slugs before getting the kitchen redone?

Am completely sympathetic by the way, used to have them in our old house - really really gross. Sorry to say no matter how much I thought I'd blocked the holes though, they still came in.

FrannyandZooey · 19/05/2008 21:15

they can come up through minute little spaces
in one house I went round with some toxic filler stuff and squirted it into every tiny crack etc
they can easily get through an air brick
and also live under the floorboards and can squeeze up at night

sorry, I share your horror
I now live in a nice modern house with small garden = no slugs

hellsbells76 · 19/05/2008 21:19

oh i've been plagued by the little buggers for years (this house and my last house). tried putting salt all over the possible entrances and nothing. then one night was doing the washing up late and one started oozing out through the overflow thingy on the sink. so yes they do come up through the sink. i used to keep a spatula specially for the purpose of scooping them up and flinging them out the window (then one day came home to find my housemate cooking with it )

Original poster
bohemianbint · 19/05/2008 21:22

They are the most disgusting creatures ever invented. Especially as they drown in the sink sometimes, and the other week one was hiding by the door frame - I didn't see it and it got squished. Fricking hideous.

Might try the salt to keep them off the top, and am going to look into getting the floor sorted - but the gaps are really uneven, and it's floor tiles as well, so short of tearing up the whole floor (not an option) it's going to be a nightmare to fix.

So slugs aren't a matter for pest control people then?

OP posts:
PeaGreene · 19/05/2008 21:23

Fraid not, so far as I know.

I know they're revolting but are they actually a health hazard? (genuine question)

moodlumthehoodlum · 19/05/2008 21:24

I opened the dishwasher the other day to find slugs actually in it . Then late at night I nearly trod on a slug meandering across the kitchen floor. It turned out that we had a massive leak from the bathroom above, filtering down the pipework to behind the dishwasher and the slugs were tempted by the wet to come through the air brick.

BarcodeZebra · 19/05/2008 21:24

They come through the air brick in our study and crawl all over the carpet. I'm quite relieved that I'm not alone.

My mother maintains that if you spit on a slug it will faint.

How would you know? It's not like it can fall over.....

Original poster
bohemianbint · 19/05/2008 21:25

LMAO Zebra - will deffo try it to see if there's any kind of reaction...

OP posts:
Waswondering · 19/05/2008 21:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
bohemianbint · 19/05/2008 21:29

I suppose they're not a health hazard like rats, in that I assume they don't piss all over your kitchen? Or do they? I assume they do wee and it takes them that long to get anywhere that I imagine they get caught short a couple of times while crossing the room?

It's just not nice to think of eating things that might have slug slime on them, and they do walk in some pretty disgusting stuff to get to you.

OP posts:
Fridayfeeling · 19/05/2008 21:32

I love slug threads ! I too have these kitchen night time visitors. I have discovered them in many strange places - dishwasher, butter dish, under the fridge handle, in the cutlery drawer. They have no place on this earth, and certainly not in my house.

But one thing I have never discussed in public before is their colour - these are not the shiny black variety, they are sort of beige coloured with spots on their back - it seems to be some mutant breed that only exists in my house and come from my cellar ?