slugs in bathroom

Apodemus

What is your plumbing arrangement?  If your bath (or sink) drain joins your foul drainage via a seperate outdoor outfall and trap and if the u-bend on your bath (or sink) waste has no water in it, then it might be possible for slugs to make entry into your bathroom, but both ifs would need to coincide for this to be the source.   Sometimes the suction from draining a bath can be sufficient to drain the water from the u-bend in the sink, leaving the pipe-run open to the outside.

In our house, the outfall pipe from the bath/sink drain outside seems to be attractive to slugs (I guess they like a warm bath on a cold day) and occasionally there are enough of them to cause a reduced outflow.  I'm guessing that if it wasn't for the water trap in the u-bends some of them might find their way into the house.  I find that any form of cleaner - vinegar, NaOH, NaClO etc, makes them let go of the pipe and get washed out.

Brie

Bathroom is part of the original bungalow and is completely separate from any other rooms - so no pipes going to anything as far as we're aware although obviously the water is coming from somewhere and the waste draining somewhere else.  The only thing that has been done since, I believe, it was originally built was us removing the tub to put in a walk in shower.  But that was a few years back and the slugs are all very recent - basically since January.

Apodemus

Brie said:

Bathroom is part of the original bungalow and is completely separate from any other rooms - so no pipes going to anything as far as we're aware although obviously the water is coming from somewhere and the waste draining somewhere else.  The only thing that has been done since, I believe, it was originally built was us removing the tub to put in a walk in shower.  But that was a few years back and the slugs are all very recent - basically since January.

Ok, let me re-word it...

Your toilet is attached to the sewer (or your septic tank) via a pipe that comes out the back of the toilet bowl and disappears down into the ground our out through the wall.  Your shower drain and bathroom sink drain will probably join together before going off in search of that same sewer pipe.  It is quite possible that instead of joining directly to the sewer pipe, the combined bath/sink waste pipe will go to a separate trap somewhere, which in turn has a separate pipe leading to the sewer pipe.  (This is actually a good arrangement as it means that if your sewer backs up, it won't come up into in your shower, the floor of which is normally lower than the water level in the toilet).  You might find a cover to this this just outside the bathroom window.   If the cover isn't slug proof or has become loosened recently, then this could be an entry point for slugs to gain access to your pipes.

I'm not saying this is the most likely scenario, just one of the potential scenarios that you might want to eliminate.

orangecrush

Rather than put salt down, which will just kill them and the evidence, put flour down. They’ll leave obvious trails. 

We had slugs in an old rental house, in the kitchen. It had a suspended floor, and the floor was lower than the ground outside as successions of owners had just built up the patio. They were getting in between crumbling mortar under the latest patio slabs, and through an air brick that had been covered by the various patios. 

After that they just made a beeline for the kitchen 😱

The feeling of stepping barefoot on a slug in the middle of the night is one I will never forget.

Anyway. Long story short, landlord did not want to fix the problem and we moved out not long after.

Point being, there may not be an obvious entry point so you have to be somewhat systematic. 

badger09

orangecrush said:

Rather than put salt down, which will just kill them and the evidence, put flour down. They’ll leave obvious trails. 

We had slugs in an old rental house, in the kitchen. It had a suspended floor, and the floor was lower than the ground outside as successions of owners had just built up the patio. They were getting in between crumbling mortar under the latest patio slabs, and through an air brick that had been covered by the various patios. 

After that they just made a beeline for the kitchen 😱

The feeling of stepping barefoot on a slug in the middle of the night is one I will never forget.

Anyway. Long story short, landlord did not want to fix the problem and we moved out not long after.

Point being, there may not be an obvious entry point so you have to be somewhat systematic. 

I  so wish I hadn’t read that🤢

goater78

In my last house they were coming up the outside wall through my upstairs bathroom window. Was irritating so ended up just selling the house 😂

twopenny

Do you dry washing in the bathroom?

I've found slugs and bugs on mine as I bring them out of the eternal rain this winter.

My biggest surprise is the baby snail found on my fleece when taken from the wardrobe. Must have worked it's way up the washing line to a warmer fleece.

I've also found small snails on the curtains. They must come in the window at night during rainy days.

orangecrush

badger09 said:

orangecrush said:

Rather than put salt down, which will just kill them and the evidence, put flour down. They’ll leave obvious trails. 

We had slugs in an old rental house, in the kitchen. It had a suspended floor, and the floor was lower than the ground outside as successions of owners had just built up the patio. They were getting in between crumbling mortar under the latest patio slabs, and through an air brick that had been covered by the various patios. 

After that they just made a beeline for the kitchen 😱

The feeling of stepping barefoot on a slug in the middle of the night is one I will never forget.

Anyway. Long story short, landlord did not want to fix the problem and we moved out not long after.

Point being, there may not be an obvious entry point so you have to be somewhat systematic. 

I  so wish I hadn’t read that🤢

Sorry friend 🫣 It has taught me to always wear slippers!