Slugs (or possibly snails)

ellay864

Sorry that this isn't really a gardening question as such but I'm hoping you good people may be able to help. I have a kind of lean to on the back of my house, conservatory is too grand a word for it, and I put my cat's food bowls out there. I've noticed that slugs find their way in there but I put pellets round outside and that does seem to help.
But worse is coming downstairs in the morning to find silver trails over my dining room carpet which really grosses me out! My dining room has sliding patio doors across virtually it's whole width, opening onto my garden. There is a large newly flagged patio and no lawn/soil areas within 6 feet. This problem started before the patio was laid and obviously hasn't improved. I try putting pellets down but it's hard to get them to settle on a smooth surface even though I try to do it while damp outside.
I don't know where the slugs are squeezing in through - I've no apparent holes. Can they just squeeze in under the patio door fitting?
And more importanly can anyone recommend anything that will deter the beggars? I don't want a trap I'd have to empty bodies from as I have a bit of a phobia and will start gagging at seeing a slug, let alone having to remove something with a slug body in (as when my ex kindly put salt down and left me to clear up their remains :eek: )

splodger_seedswapper

you could put a beer trap down - they are attracted by the smell of the beer and if you set it right - they will just drop in the liquid and drown after a good drink

just empty the trap in the morning (you don't have to look in it )

stumpycat

Ooh yuck!
Cat food seems to act as slug bait, so you could maybe put a beer trap next to it (covered, so the cats don't drink it!)
Diatomaceous earth is supposed to be good for killing slugs:
http://www.slugoff.co.uk/slug-solutions/slug-barriers/diatomaceous-earth.html
I bought some quite cheaply from Ebay to dust my chicken coop to kill mites etc.

trudiha

I had a slug problem in my kitchen when I first moved in. I went through the whole slug pellet/copper tape/beer trap thing. Individual slugs died (and I got the dubious pleasure of picking them up) but the only thing that actually solved the problem was replacing the sliding patio doors with new French windows.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

How to get rid of slugs indoors

To reduce slug nuisance, first, examine under the kitchen sink and seal any gaps, in external walls
or solid floors, around the sink waste pipe and the cold water supply pipe. Next, inspect the external
walls of the house at, and just above, ground level. Seal any gaps in the pointing, under doorsteps
and around waste and gas pipes with sand and cement or mastic. (Airbricks must not be sealed, as
ventilation is required under the floor to prevent dry rot).

It may be possible for slugs to enter through open joints in the brickwork below ground level.
However, the cost of excavation to look for gaps that may not even be there cannot be justified.

The next method of attack is to use slug bait pellets to kill as many slugs as possible out of doors
and so reduce the numbers available to enter the house. The pellets can be scattered thinly or
placed in small heaps under tiles. The instructions on the packet regarding handling slug pellets
and the protection of domestic animals should be followed. The pellets can be purchased from
garden centres or hardware shops. However, a word of caution - the pellets not only kill slugs but
also attract them. Therefore, they must not be used indoors.

Do not expect to get rid of slugs overnight. There is no one, easy answer to this problem; you will
require both patience and persistence.

Source


I've also read a few where they say the beasties could be coming up from a cellar, where there are few foundations (like old properties) and that they are either attracted to the cat food (the carnivorous ones) or any mould indoors, such as the sort you get around sliding patio doors.

Lotus-eater

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

and that they are either attracted to the cat food (the carnivorous ones) or any mould indoors, such as the sort you get around sliding patio doors.

I think that the slugs are attracted to the wheat bran and cearels in the dry cat food, not the meat content.
But I could be wrong.

OP, I think you will find that you only need a few slugs in a house and they leave trails everywhere, making you think you have far more.
I lived in a house like this, we got up in the middle of the night a few times, picked and killed them and that was the end of it.
Leave out some dry cat food and check it in the middle of the night a couple of times.

ellay864

Thanks for the tips. The pellets around the outide of the lean to seem to have sorted them out there even with the cat footd around, it's really the patio window into dining room that's driving me mad. This may be a silly question but where can I get rid of the beer/slug stuff if I use a trap - can it go in the compost?

splodger_seedswapper

re. beer trap waste - yeah just stick it in the compost heap