SLUG INVASION - please help me before I have to leave the country

[hester]

Woke up this morning to find silvery trails all over my living room rug, and some sticky patches on the floor.

It's chuffin slugs, isn't it?

I've just moved from a city centre flat to the leafy suburbs, and am realising that with leaves come bugs. Ants, giant spiders, even fornicating dragonflies floating round my home today.

But the slugs are the worst. How do I get rid of them? Is there any alternative to those blue pellets?

I assume you mean a slug, not a rat

Yes, although there was a mouse in my handbag one day.

I tried to clear the cobwebs in our air bricks with a chop stick and a skewer. Didn;t seem effective. How do you do it? It's tricky, small little gaps.

Piglet,I'm imagining you are a bit hunky and caring. I reckon there's money to be made doing
an online 'embarrassing houses' advice service for damp, pests, yukky stuff like that with a hunky caring type and some ruthless organised Sarah Beaney character. Move over Kim and Aggie.

Ooh, yes. Forgot to mention the massive bee's nest lodged between the floorboards in a room upstairs. We had a room we couldn't go in at all when the hive was active. When we eventually managed to eradicate it, the weight of the the honey brought part of the ceiling down.

Air bricks - hair dryers seem to do the job quite well.

We had red tailed bumblebees in the thatch when we moved in, they used to drop from the light fittings - big buggers they are too - about two inches long. Not what you want when you are having a pee at 4am

Poor you, what a nightmare! I have them eating my home grown veg, I really hate them, what purpose do they have apart from being eating evrything!

Most of the remedies are for the outdoors, like egg shells etc. I have heard Copper tape doesn't really work, how and where would you stick it in your house?

In the garden i have been using a caffeine spray made by a company called Garden Robusta.

Slugs absolutely hate caffeine, they just slide away. they have a video of it working on their site, www.gardenrobusta.com.

Importantly its non toxic, which is a good thing for the kids and pets if you have them... you dont really want to be laying down poision.

Maybe spray the caffeine spray on your carpets, and buy some of their mulch and leave it around your air vents. worth a go...

Maybe get in contact with them and see what their view is, can only help to ask the experts.

good luck

I put down copper tape when slugs were coming in our back door and then witnessed a big slug slide straight over it no problem! After that I resorted to slug pellets.

it is much easier to clear airbricks from inside. It involves taking up one or two floor boards close to the wall. Not the very outside one as it will be under the skirting.

you can use a stiff brush.

you may also find rubbish and rubble under the floor, it does no harm to clear up what you can

you haven't looked under the floor yet, have you?

it will be useful to find out if it is earth or concrete, if it is damp, where the damp is coming from.

if you want DIY advice, try the Floors, Stairs and Lofts forum on www.diynot.com/forums/

p.s. she says she hasn't finished with me yet.

You could discourage them by spreading ground coffee all over they do hate caffeine. I use old coffee grounds under hostas and other plants outdoors, but fresh ground coffee would be better indoors and would smell nice, if you like the smell of coffee. They also hate salt it makes them curl up and die.

I'd be calling roofers, gutter people and anyone who deals with fascia boards asap though. Water is the Number One culprit in a lot of house problems. You might even need to have an underground drain attended to, if there's any possibility of a cracked old underground sewer or storm drain pipe on your lot with tree roots anywhere near. I would check under the floors for signs of damp, or a cracked concrete foundation. Keep at the airbricks though.

We found we had slugs in our house when we moved in. Got some slug repellent spray (safe for use inside and around a toddler) - is yucca based. The slugs hated it. Havent seen them since (periodically spray again). Is a dark brown colour - works for us as have dark wood floorboards.

No, PigletJohn, I haven't looked under the floorboards yet (was rather hoping if I sat here looking winsome for awhile your ladylove might set you free - but damn it hasn't worked). Actually was waiting for my lovely handyman to arrive, but he seems to have gone awol. I have no idea how to lift a floorboard and no idea what to look for when I get under there.

BUT a slug slithered over my dd's foot this afternoon as she sat on the rug. She absolutely freaked. So I clearly can't ignore this. I will get someone to come round and check things out for me (who?? what do I look for in the yellow pages?). In the meantime, am very interested by caffeine solution...

I sound like a real incompetent, don't I? Wish I was married to all you lovely people; you sound like you'd fell a slug with just a well-chosen glare.

coffee, bah

use slug pellets

that's what they're for.

clear up the empty bodies each morning. They'll soon reduce in number.

Agh, EMPTY BODIES? Don't they just crawl away to die? Tidy up after themselves?

I don't like the idea of slug corpses AT ALL.

I'm just going to have to revert to original plan: leave the country.

yes, they slither away, ejecting copious slime as they go. When they're empty they die.

you can clean up the slime in the morning, you will find a body at the end of the trail.

You might think you have an unending supply of slugs, but after a few days the numbers will go down and soon you will have none left, but keep frsh pellets, esp. under the floor, befind the kitchen cabinets, and damp places, and around airbricks. Scattred thinly, not in piles (this prevents birds or pets from eating them in quantity)

if you can befriend a hedgehog he will eat them for you (no slug pellets in that case) but he will have fleas. Or you could get a pet toad.

p,s,

I believe I heard that if you kiss a handsome prince, he will turn into a toad.

Jet lag cured my slug problems. Every night at about 3 a.m. when I couldn't sleep I went down and covered them in salt - then collected them in the morning (bleeurrgh). Three nights of this and they didn't come back.
We had a dead/decomposing squirrel in our cold water tank. uSed to think squirrels were cute till then.

Hello Piglet!
Best ever slug advice.

You still there, PigletJohn?

Under my floorboards there is indeed earth. My handyman says there's no sinister damp problem, and we should be fine if we get a big rug, or put mastic in the gaps between the floorboards.

Do you reckon he's right? Should we just add another layer of flooring?

I've just realised that i have slugs coming in my conservatory every night.

I can see the trails all over my dogs toys and her basket (she doesnt sleep there at night, just during the day).

We lock the back door at night so i don't think they're getting into the house but i can't see the trails anywhere other than the dogs bed and toys so can't trace it back to see where they are getting in!!!

I'm not good with building logistics etc but we live mid terrace with a conservatory on the back and there is only a tiny walkway down each side before you reach the fence of the neighbouring gardens. So i'm not really sure how they can be coming into the conservatory as i cannot see any air vents or any gaps around the windows for them to get into?

can someone please help and advise me exactly where to look? we have lino down so i don't think they are getting through the floorboards as there are no gaps in the lino.

I've got a toad in my garden you can have - not sure if you want that in your hallway though.

Nemaslug works really well at reducing the slug population, although it won't stop them getting into the house.

Katsp8, could you just stay up late one night and watch to see where the slugs are getting in?

I am currently doing late night salt duty, about 11 pm I go into the garden table salt in hand and dissolve any of the fuckers I see, seems to make no difference to the amount that come in the house though, the cat dishes are always covered in slime in thre morning boak.

personally i think you should type out an invite for "tea at three" then when all the slug family arrives you can give them all caffeine along with a good dose of salt !

my brother used to go out late at night armed with a torch and a pair of scissors and cut them in half ugh !

is it wrond that I was dissapointed I could only find 2 last night.