Is anyone else having a huge problem with slugs this year?  Not just in the garden, I mean in the house too?  I live out in the sticks, but this is ridiculous.  Every night there are about 4 or 5 sliming around in the hall  A few have come into the living room, to the utter disgust of the cats, and last night, I popped up to the loo, and found a tiny slug on the loo roll.  I've never known anything like it.  My Mum says she's had quite a few in her kitchen and so has an elderly lady she looks after.

We keep chucking them outside - haven't the heart to kill them, but they keep coming back :rolleyes:

Lisa

Yes and snails :(

I go out with a big container full of salt and pour it over them :)

They haven't entered the house though I would be horrified

Loads and loads of slugs and shails. I put all my tubs up high on the garden table but they still managed to get there. Lost so many plants.....I was out there every night picking them off. In the end I had to buy snail/slug pellets. Sad - but had to be done.

> In the end I had to buy snail/slug pellets. Sad - but had to be done.

You could try Shock Mats or Garlic  Granules next time ;-)

What a great idea, I've never heard of them before.  Very attractive too, the copper band.  Does it turn green eventually?

Eventually but they still work The Shock mats are impregnated with copper which last for years.

You can slug gel instead of pellets not very green but you can control where the gel goes & good in greenhouses if animals(especially dogs/cats don't have access)

Hi Lisa,

Any dampness in the house?  unusual  I think for them to come in the house? I would not like that one bit another on of my phobias :-)

Put a pond in the garden, then along will come the frogs and toads and they will put an end to slugs!!  :)

or get some chickens LOL  My friend hasn't seen a slug since she got hers :)

never seen slugs in the house unless the house is a bit damp

We are over-run with slugs in our garden :(  the wet weather means they are thriving :(  not getting them inside tho ;)
I tried the stuff you water in once, it was great for about 5 mins until the slugs on either side of us realised there was space in our garden then they were back with a vengeance :( :(  the gardens on either side of us aren't really cultivated so slugs rule :(

I've given up this year, slug pellets would be dangerous for the dogs, and I'm sick of salting the little devils - it makes such a mess!

To stop slugs and snails coming into the house you could use those copper strips for plant pots accross the doorway :D :D

Oh I think I can cope with the slugs easier than the frogs. The frogs move to fast :-)  I am sure it is my slugs that are attracting the frog..

I think it's the rain. None in the house, but when I walk the dogs slugs and snails are EVERYWHERE.

I think I have slugs coming inside, out of the rain :rolleyes:

Caught a couple on Sunday, climbing up the (double-glazed) back door ......yesterday there were three in the kitchen

I carefully picked them up (wearing rubber gloves and using kitchen towel) and took them outside and about 20 yards up the lane ....hopefully the birds would have had a good breakfast!

Margot

Natural remedy to keep slugs off plants is to put used filter coffee grounds round them.

A couple of years ago I grew some marrows, we got a late frost that damaged the plants, just as they were recovering the slugs got them, bought some new plants and was given this advice and amazingly it worked.

oooh. Haven't heard of that one. Will have to give it a try!

Yes, the house is a bit damp, it's very old and really needs a new roof.  Would have the fire going but it's so warm lately.
Woke up to lots more slimy trails this morning....little blighters!

Yes here too, my oh hates them when they come in he puts on his rambo outfit and gets the salt out, i really wouldn't mind but he just leaves them there and its not nice treading on one early hours of the morning when your on the way to the loo.

Slugs, snails and mice here   When I did my pots a few weeks ago I put slug pellets in at the same time and couldn't believe my eyes as the next morning 3 huge snails were in one pot alone.  The foliage in the pots hides the pellets really well but I wouldn't put them on the ground because of the dog so ho hum just have to put up with them for now. 

Dropped a couple of pieces of kibble in the garage and next day noticed they had gone so set up a couple of mice traps baited with kibble as they seem to like it.  Opened garage door yesterday and mouth dropped.  Traps were still set i.e not sprung but the kibble had gone (whistles Mission Impossible tune)  I tested the traps before I set them so know they were working.  Last night set the traps again but pushed the kibble into peanut butter on the traps and sprinkled flour around as was worried that it wasn't mice.  This morning one mouse caught but think there are bound to be more.

We have some resident slugs that come up through the floorboards at night. One little blighter can't resist the OH's laptop bag. Every time he packs it for a business trip it's been decorated with slime graffiti in the morning :) as is our carpet I'd put some bran buds out but little Miss Dyson would suck them out of the floorboards if it meant one more piece of food could go in her mouth. Bran cereal is a safe way to kill them. Sucks the water right out of them so wildlife isn't harmed by eating the slug jerky remnants.

I'd forgotten about the Bran method.  It makes them swell up as their body moisture is absorbed. Unfortunately, we have such wet weather this year I doubt it would work outside. 

Lori, can't you sprinkle some salt between the floorboards?

I could try but I suspect it will fall on the ground and the sluggies will still crawl under the floor. I'll try it though.

>slug jerky<

iiick!!!! :D :D :D

I bought my neighbour a smal book called 50 ways to kill slugs as she is a keen gardener and one of the methods was to put muesli down as the slug eat it and it expand inside them and the explode Not sure if it works???? Other methods were quite amusing including a type of golf if you didn't get on with your neighbour :-)
I used to go around the garden with a bucket of salty water and pick off the slugs and snails and put them into the water, they dies quite quick and smed to work quite well. ;-D
GG

........and then you've got a bucket of slugs to dispose of (need an EEEEEW - YUK smiley here) it's the same with beer traps, I'm not sure which is worse, the slugs or the manky beer full of slugs

I used to put salt on them at night, but hated getting up to a pile of dead bodies and slime on the patio the next morning :(

I just cut them in half with my trusty secateurs...at least 10 every night :D

We've had the same problem - although partly it's due to the snails (rather than slugs) enjohing our big fig tree near our back door - the not only climb up it to eat the figs on the tree, but also use it as a home and so we have a huge number just wandering around on the patio at night ...

I hate killing them but will sometimes give them a flying lesson ... :D

My OH very nicely informed me today he'd beenout last night and collected "loads" in a big bucket - he has put a lid on and will be taking them out today and releasing them ...

Thank goodness for him as I'm getting close to a phobia of them, now!!

Lindsay
x

Ahhh... I'm with your hubby, I too just collect them all up and throw them over the wall into the field.

My problem is the extra increase of slugs and snails ( no doubt to do with the rain) is bringing hedghogs in abundance too, slugs and snails generally don't come on my decking and stay in the garden or wherever they go, but they are all over it recently so the hedgehogs and one in particular is also on the decking where my girl can see it, it seems to come about midnight and my girl keeps barking at it, (lucky I have no close neighbours) but I have to let her out to sniff it and then she leaves it alone. All a bit of a game really, she is at the patio door looking for it all the time though. :-D Hopefully the game can stop once the rain goes away.:rolleyes: