Slugs!

I have had a problem with slugs now for years, every time I go into our kitchen I find a slug. If I go into the kitchen late at night I will probably find a few.

About 4 years ago I ripped the kitchen back to the walls as I assumed there were breaches in the walls but it was all dry, complete and tidy.

I have since stripped the kitchen out again, in case I missed something, and replaced the window, done some pointing outside, I can't see how they are getting in. There is no door in the kitchen, can they possible squeeze through the closed UPVC window?

They might be getting in through the French doors in the living room and slithering across, but then surely i'd see more of them in the living room, where I only rarely see them.

We have wood floors with a space underneath, could they be living/ breeding under there?

They are doing my tree in, next job is to put some copper strip around the outside of the house, hopefully that will be effective, until the pikeys nick it.

Reply to
R D S
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You're me, you are. :-/

I've had similar problems since I moved into this house.

I used to have the same problem in the flat until I re-rendered the outside and replaced all the windows with double glazed units. I'm not saying that was what cured the problem, though...

Reply to
John Williamson

You don't happen to have a cat do you? Mine seems to bring them in every so often!

Reply to
Toby

Reply to
John Williamson

We don't.

We did once see a hedgehog and brought it home and put it in the yard as I read they eat slugs, but it buggered off.

Reply to
R D S

We had a long haired Maine Coon, and it used to bring in a couple attached to its underside...then randomly drop them round the house.

Stepping on a slug in your bare feet at 3 a.m....yuk.

Reply to
Bob Eager

Exactly the same issue here. French doors are the only place that I can co= nceive that they are squeezing in, but the size of the buggers seems to sug= gest that they can't possibly get in that way. Never caught one in the act= of breaking and entering, so can't give a definitive answer.

ALthough we do have some suspended floors, we only ever find them in the ba= ck of the house which is parque (?) onto a concrete slab. Their slime trai= ls do generally seem to lead back to the door area, but we just put up with= them, and SWMBO turns up with a pair of scissors to lift them outside befo= re despatching them by closing the blade. Can't quite bring myself to do t= hat...

Matt

Reply to
larkim

I caught one squeezing under the plinth in the kitchen, where there is barely a gap.

I'm going to give the back doors a thorough examination.

Reply to
R D S

I have a healthy, well-fed hedgehog resident in my garden, but it doesn't seem to make much impression on the number of slugs. I suspect that would need a hedgehog army.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

Lucky! I saw my first hedgehog for some years this summer (in a cemetery, but alive), and then saw two more in the month after that (flattened, unfortunately).

Reply to
Adam Funk

Similar here - they were being attracted by the dog's dish.

I found one on the inside of the door, where it had squeezed under the sealing strip - this was ( I thought) a very close-fitting DG door and hadn't considered that possibility.

Spray all around likely entrance points with a strong solution of bleach or disinfectant - it definitely puts the buggers off. Do it every couple of evenings until you can be sure the problem's gone away. Every one you find and destroy /flush down the bog is one that can't breed indoors.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

We had a greenhouse installed a couple of years ago,metal framed mounted a low brick foundation. Before I got around to sealing the gap between frame and brick a slug around 10mm diameter was found entering one day. The gap was only about 1 or 2mm but the bugger had the ability to shrink down and get through, when found it was about

10mm diameter either side of a section where it was squeezing through the gap. It got through fairly quickly but seconds after was about 1mm thick over a larger area due to a boot.

G.Harman

Reply to
damduck-egg

It may be the time of year for it, I found one a couple of days ago. He was sitting on the floor gazing longingly at the fridge. They are very flexible, he fitted down the gaps in the plug hole, with a hot water enema to aid him on his way.

I think your problem lies in the snip ^ If you have a suspended wooden floor, you will have vented air bricks at almost ground level. The holes are about 10 mm square, and are very inviting for the curious gastropod.

Ok, that is almost certainly how they get in, how you stop it is another matter. Periodic scattering of slug pellets under and in the air brick? Cheap to try, relatively safe and will not interfere with teh underfloor ventilation.

Good luck

Al.

Reply to
Alan (BigAl)

A very large one came out through a tiny air vent slot rather quickly in the lawnmower motor casing as I started cutting the lawn.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Have slugs got bigger?

I remember from childhood seeing small ones- half to one inch. Now I seem to see them so large they are thinking about using a deed poll to call themselves Anaconda. And instead of being nondescript pale-to-grey they have orange skirts and things.

Reply to
polygonum

Strictly's on - they're tango skirts.

My water barrel has a nice little colony of leaches that are about the size of the big slugs. I thought that the first one was a slug at first glance, then it headed down into the water. I don't know what effect the frosts will have.

Reply to
PeterC

I thought tango was the colour of their skin?

Actually, have a sort of affection for tango colour - ICL 2900 mainframes in Hot Tango!

Reply to
polygonum

Don't remind me....

Reply to
Bob Eager

For what it's worth on a thread this old. I caught one sneaking out from the side of the washing machine. Washing machine out, salt down and I have never seen one since.

Reply to
Mr Pounder

The tit that fitted my kitchen made a pigs ear of the drain pipes from the sink & washer. At a push they could possibly be getting in up the pipe that the washer waste fits loosely into.

I've bought a 20m roll of roofing copper. If it's true that they don't like the stuff, they are going to have their work cut out.

Reply to
R D S

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