HELP!!!!silvery trail on my floor!!! What is it????

[Kitkatqueen]

OK!! living in old house, has been completely renovated in the last couple of months - was empty for 2 years before that.

Last night I noticed a small silver trail just underneath the kitchen cupboard where the kickboard hadn't been put back. I thought I must have spilt a tiny bit of washing up liquid and wiped it up.

I just opened the cupboard under the stairs (Which is about 15 feet from the kitchen cupboard) to look for somthing and the entire brand new carpet and some of the floorboards is covered in silvery trails!!!!

Has something hatched????? I am freaking out here at the thought - what is doing this?

Slugs

Special magical little fairy paths.

Or slugs.

Snails or slugs.

Slugs or snails
Or bogey

Small aliens which will grow very fast and then eat you as you sleep.

Or slugs.

Not sure which is worse.

If you set up some CCTV tonight you may see this happening

I've just looked under the kitchen cupboard there are trails everywhere - seriously? slugs? I was kind of hoing the fairy thing was a possibility .

But the cupboard under the stairs is an airing cupboard and has been completely scrubbed out and repainted, its really warm in there. Are they coming up through the floor boards? because the thought is making me cringe

Thanks yogi! I was cringing in case it was a giant slug squeezing through the crack in someones floorboards!

So slug and snail poison then? Give them a bit of beer? Whats the best option?

salt?????

OMG!!! I just caught the one in the cupboard!!! Its bloody huge!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

slugs and/or snails.
Hint - don't try and clean it off until it is dry, when it just crumbles into dust and is very easy to hoover up. Wet - complete nightmare.

For the love of God don't use salt inside the house - it reacts with the slime and makes it all bubbly and really messy.

Thumbwitch!!!! Too Late!! I just poured half a bag of salt underneath the kitchen cupboard!

I'm afraid to say that I released it, but only because I couldn't face the "squish" I absolutley HATE slugs.

The thought of it squeezing through the floorboards is freaking me out, what if its a really popular slug with lots of friends????

ah well, so long as it's not on carpet, it won't be the worst thing in the world. Just wait for the mess to dry out and then vacuum it up

I can't stand the things either - I once trod on one in the middle of the night, one of those 4" long ones with an orange frill - Bleugh! it took ages to wash the goo off the bottom of my foot (absolutely essential, no WAY was I leaving it on there!)

If you have air bricks, they are probably coming in through those. That's where mine used to come in. But you obviously can't block them up, because they have an important function and you would cause more problems than just slugs if you block them!

Also don't walk around barefoot at night - I did that after finding trails on my hall carpet, and the neighbours heard my yelp as it popped between my toes.

Do you have pets? Slugs love catfood. They used to come in through the bloody catflap (very, very slowly) and steal the catfood in my old house

You will have to move.

We used to have an ancient cottage and slugs used to come up through the floorboards.

It still makes me shudder.

We moved.

Could you maybe get a pet hedgehog?

Dp says I can't have a pet hedgehog called Mr Prickles, no matter how much I do the pleading look!

I have a plan! Mwah -hahahaaaha! Ok so the slugs are coming in through the airbrick, and slugs can't touch copper because it gives them a sort of electric shock, so how about I put a copper grill over the air brick and stop the popping between the toes (thanks for that image!boak!)little buggers from getting in?

whomovedmychocolate - for a split second there I had a vision of a slug the size of a cat coming through your cat flap! that really would be a worry! pmsl

Thanks everybody

Oh yuck! In my old house they used to come up from under the house by one of the base units in the kitchen, they were attracted to my dog's water dish which was sitting there. We made a salt barrier which seemed to stop them, but I never went barefoot anymore.

Also got very annoyed at now XH because he accused my gorgeous dog of bringing the slugs in from outside...AS IF he would put such a foul thing in his mouth!! Felt very vindicated with XH saw one coming up from under the units and had to admit he was wrong.

You can always put silica gel on your airbricks though, it dries out the air and they suffocate as they come through muwhahahahahha

Or how about mousetraps loaded with catfood. Now that's entertainment

I had this problem in a flat once. Totally hideous I feel for you. Most animals and creepy crawlies don't bother
me but slugs freak me out.
We moved. We have spiders now. Much more
sociable and no fairy trails.